It was almost befitting, like in a Greek tragedy, that Tim Brennan and Robert Ladd would be the first to arrive on the scene as Orlando “Baby Lane” Anderson lay dying, gasping his last breaths on May 29, 1998. Their lives had been intertwined for years by this point - as though fate had fashioned things that way - from the start of Baby Lane’s “career” as a member of the South Side Compton Crips (SSCC) - sometimes just referred to as the South Side Crips through his alleged involvement as the key player in one of the most iconic moments in hip-hop history.
It was common knowledge, both on the street and through Tim and Bob’s extensive investigations, that Baby Lane was the man who’d murdered legendary hip-hop artist Tupac Shakur. And there he was now, dying at their feet, one of three men who would die that afternoon in a triple murder. Baby Lane’s best friend, Michael Dorrough, also wounded during the shootout, would later be charged, convicted, and imprisoned for all three deaths.
This was just one of many violent incidents the two men would either be a part of or bear witness to during their time serving on the Compton police force, both as officers on the beat and as homicide detectives running the gang unit. This book is their story as partners for fifteen years working what many considered, in its heyday, some of the meanest streets in the country. They knew the players. The players knew them. They watched those players grow up, join gangs, and saw the impact those gangs had on an otherwise lawful community of good people who were simply trying to make their way toward what they believed to be the American Dream.
Neither Tim nor Bob were Compton natives, but as a result of their time there, they ended up being experts in dealing with gangs and subsequently traveling around the country to train other law enforcement agencies. Their fight has always been for the community and the people who live in it, who want and deserve what should be basic human rights: peace of mind and the ability to walk out of their doors without the threat of bullets flying and drugs flooding the streets.
From 1982 to 2000, they knew the world of Compton. They watched the rise of gangsta rap and knew its architects: Eazy-E and the members of N.W.A, Suge Knight, DJ Quik, MC Eiht, and others. They also knew east coast hip-hop artists Tupac Shakur and The Notorious B.I.G., aka Biggie Smalls, because both rappers frequented Compton. When Tupac and Biggie were murdered, Tim and Bob were heavily involved in both criminal investigations and wrote search warrants, as well as arrested suspects. They have clear-cut beliefs about who killed both, based on extensive evidence and their own research. The murderers in both cases have seemed clear-cut to them, despite the fact that they’ve been presented as “unsolved” for nearly two decades.
Tim and Bob witnessed the inner workings of Death Row Records and the actions of its CEO, Suge Knight, along with the behind-the-scenes murders and shootings that were a part of that world. They watched the rise of the Bloods and the Crips, the culture wars, the drug wars, and the staggering negative effects all of it had on the city of Compton.
Despite their best efforts to fight against what was happening in the streets, they found themselves fighting against an even larger machine -- apathy outside of Compton and corruption within the city which ultimately led to the demise of the Compton Police Department. Compton’s police force had been in existence since 1888, but it was dismantled by corrupt politicians in September 2000 as investigations by the police union began to strike too close to home. The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department (L.A.S.D.) assumed law enforcement for the city. Compton’s corrupt politicians ultimately went to prison (although, in 2012, former mayor Omar Bradley’s conviction was overturned), but sixteen years later, the city still doesn’t have a police department of its own.
This is the story of Tim and Bob’s time in Compton, not of the city as it exists now. Today’s Compton seems to be on a promising climb with strong mayoral leadership, the support of hip-hop artists such as Kendrick Lamar shining a renewed light on the city, and generous efforts such as music mogul Dr. Dre donating all the royalties from his 2015 Compton album to build a performing arts and entertainment facility for kids.[3]
The era spoken of in these pages was a different time altogether, one closer in spirit to Sergio Leone’s epic saga, Once Upon A Time In America, which depicted the rise and fall of gangs in the twenties and thirties. In the eighties and nineties, there was a similar rise and fall, as blood, bullets, violence, and death played out before the world, with the driving soundtrack of gangsta rap and hip-hop chronicling it all.
Tim and Bob with a cache of weapons seized from the streets.
This was Tim and Bob’s Compton, and would always be the Compton of their hearts. It was a community of people they knew, respected, and did their best to serve. It was a war zone then, actual warfare happening in the streets, every day and every night. That warfare gradually stretched across the country as gang activity proliferated from city to city, town to town, the tentacles of the Bloods and Crips extending further and further.
That era would never be forgotten, especially by those who lived it. Good, bad, and bloody - this was a time whose impact was so far-reaching, it didn’t just shape Tim and Bob’s lives and those around them. It arguably touched the entire world.