The head of a South Los Angeles nonprofit gang intervention program has been arrested by authorities on suspicion of conspiracy to commit murder, in a case that has drawn widespread condemnation and expressions of incredulity from his colleagues.
Skipp Townsend, 62, executive director of 2nd Call, was taken into custody by detectives from the Los Angeles Police Department’s Robbery Homicide Division on Wednesday about 10:30 a.m. outside the group’s office at La Brea Avenue and Obama Boulevard.
Townsend is a former gang member who, for more than two decades, has been the head of one of the city’s largest intervention programs and often appears in the media and alongside city leaders. His organization is an advocacy group that seeks to mediate gang disputes and provide alternatives to violence in the community…