RANDY ECONOMY: MY WORLD: Michael Atkins and Donte Butler: Two gang members convicted of Attempted Murder and Assault on a Peace Officer Sentenced to 30 Years Prison

Friday, May 25, 2012

Michael Atkins and Donte Butler: Two gang members convicted of Attempted Murder and Assault on a Peace Officer Sentenced to 30 Years Prison

Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Huge Breaking News out of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department this afternoon:

Two gang members convicted of Attempted Murder and Assault on a Peace Officer Sentenced to 30 Years Prison

In the early morning hours of Saturday, March 4, 2012, suspects Atkins and Butler armed themselves with handguns and walked up to the victims, who were standing in their driveway in the 14500 Block of South Keene Avenue in the unincorporated area of Gardena. The suspects asked the victims if they knew where they could buy marijuana and then without warning, fired several shots at the victims missing them as the victims dove for cover. During the shooting, a uniformed patrol deputy was in the area and observed the suspects running from the scene. During a short foot pursuit of the suspects, Michael Atkins pointed his loaded handgun at a deputy. Fearing the suspect was about to fire at him, the deputy fired several rounds at suspect Atkins, striking him in the arm. Atkins was taken into custody at the scene. Suspect Butler fled into the neighborhood and was taken into custody a short time after a yard-to-yard search. Two loaded handguns were recovered and connected to the suspects. The victims were not gang members. During the subsequent investigation by detectives from Operation Safe Streets Bureau assigned to the Compton Sheriff’s Station, both suspects identified themselves as gang members and confessed their intent to ambush the victims who they thought were rival gang members. Suspect Atkins also confessed to holding a handgun as he was shot by the deputy and stated that he thought the deputy was trying to shoot the gun out of his hand. Both suspects appeared in Compton Court on May 24, 2012, where they both plead guilty to multiple counts of attempted murder with weapons and gang allegations. Suspect Atkins also pled guilty to assault with a deadly weapon on a peace officer. They were each sentenced to thirty years and eight months in California State Prison.

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You may know me from my role as the Senior Advisor and Official Media Spokesman for the Recall Gavin Newsom campaign that established a worldwide blitz of interviews. I conducted more than 2,200 media interviews on behalf of “The People’s Recall” during a 10-month period from November 2020 to September 2021. The iconic magazine Mother Jones in a dramatic feature article called me “A ‘Superhero Pirate’ Radio Host, (and) Gavin Newsom’s Strangest—and Most Dangerous—Threat. Meet Randy Economy, the man behind the effort to recall California’s governor.” I appeared on more than 330 media outlets around the world in my capacity with RecallGavin2020. Fox News, CNN, MSNBC, Newsmax, NBC Nightly News, ABC News, as well as the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Politico, and dozens of other media outlets aired featured reports on my work on behalf of “The People’s Recall.” I am and will always consider myself to be a journalist. Sometimes I think I bleed ink. My talents as an Investigative Journalists in California earned me FIVE top awards from the prestigious Los Angeles Press Club in 2013, 2014, and 2016. I am tenacious. My reporting over the years has led to the prosecution of several elected officials in California. While working for a tiny community newspaper in Southeast Los Angeles County, I worked doggedly to expose the biggest public corruption case in Los Angeles County history when I unearthed a massive pay to play scheme inside the Assessor’s Office that led to the arrest of then Assessor John R. Noguez and four others. However, politics has been in my DNA since I was a child. I have worked on more than 300 political campaigns as a consultant and advisor since 1982 for candidates from all sides of the political spectrum including Democrats and Republicans, and even Libertarians. I am also a small business owner, serving as the President and CEO of Hot Water Studio & Production, LLC. My company works with media outlets across the state, nation, and world exposing public corruption via several new media platforms. I have also overcome personal challenges. I am legally blind with zero vision in my right eye and only 40 percent vision remaining in my left eye. I sometimes wear an eyepatch due to my failed vision. (Hence the nickname of “America’s Political Pirate.”