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Police warned that officers would be out in force Thursday and Friday “saturation patrols” in search of those driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs in areas with high frequencies of DUI collisions or arrests.

Magnolia and Broadway At 10:40 a.m., a pedestrian was hit by a transit bus, but didn’t appear to be seriously injured, as a bus might do.

15th Street and Atlantic Avenue. At 10:15 p.m. a bicyclist was critically injured after colliding with a motorist near Poly High School. Paramedics transported the male bicyclist to a hospital in critical but stable condition. Police said the male driver of a BMW sedan was southbound on Atlantic Avenue and collided with the bicyclist who may have gone against a red light. Authorities said the driver was not under the influence and remained at the scene until officers released him.

Olive Avenue and Broadway. At 2:15 p.m., police investigated an allegedly stolen GMC Yukon from South Gate with two men in their 20s sitting in it, the Yukon, not the Gate. A police chopper was called to the scene.

17th Street and Alamitos Avenue. At 5:45 p.m., Long Beach residents Sandra Coleman, 56, and Don Sims, 55 were shot to death in a car, according to authorities. When police arrived a the scene, police found a wounded Sims and Coleman inside the car stopped in the middle of the street. Coleman, the driver of the car, was already dead at the scene, and Sims, the front passenger, was transported to a local hospital where he was pronounced deceased. Police are investigating the incident as gang-related.

Long Beach Boulevard near 55th Street. At 6:55 a.m., a Long Beach man, 23-year-old Ernesto Perez, shot a gun into the air outside a home, the bullet going he knows not where, causing him to be arrested. The why was suspicion he was under the influence of drugs or alcohol. The several charges were suspicion of negligent discharge of a firearm, carrying a concealed weapon, possession of an unmarked firearm, carrying a loaded firearm in public and possession of a controlled substance while armed, and he was booked into jail on $90,000.

Poly High School. A student came across an Instagram post that warned of a school shooting at 10 a.m. No one was apparently victimized by this unwanted threat.

1100 block of Pacific Coast Hwy. At 10:30 p.m. came reports of a man in a car leaving a motel, then stabbing a woman passenger, who then escaped and took refuge.

Magnolia at 21st Street. A two-car accident between a Chevy sedan and a Toyota minivan tied up traffic at 10:50 a.m. because of rescue efforts of a woman who needed to be removed from her vehicle and the need to tow away at least one of the impacted vehicles.

Ocean Boulevard and Cherry Avenue. To kick-off the St. Patrick’s Day weekend at 6 p.m., police screened 517 vehicles during a DUI/Driver’s License checkpoint. No DUI arrests were made, seven citations were issued, three for unlicensed driver. “One difference that was noticed during this checkpoint was an increase in taxis and ride share vehicles, such as Uber and Lyft.”

Long Beach. At 2:15 a.m. a man went to hospital after being stabbed and police showed up to take a report. However when it came to location, why or when it happened, the man apparently didn’t know nothin’, not at all. He was expected to survive. The stabbing was not being investigated as gang-related. Police did not have suspect information.

East Long Beach north of Spring Street. Before 3 p.m. skies were cloudy but precious little precipitation was noted until a storm cell sent off a generous supply of hail off-and-on until 4 p.m., when it departed, making the area in second place in serious weather to Compton where it snowed.

2800 block of Delta Avenue. Called in at 2 a.m. over shots fired reports, police found shell casings in the street. No human or human property was wounded or damaged, no bullet holes anywhere, probably not the shells landing from the March 11 shots-in-air incident.

200 block of Obispo Avenue. At 3 p.m., a resident noticed a group of metallic balloons were hovering over a power line adjacent to Horace Mann School. By 3:15 p.m., the balloons landed on the lines, so the resident, in this order, called the Edison Company, the police and fire and went over to the school to warn them that children were playing adjacent to the danger. The school took notice, fire told him that they couldn’t do much unless they arced. By 4 p.m., Edison Company crews had neutralized the problem. An onlooker suggested that metallic balloon companies should mark their product with serial numbers to track users who let these problem items loose.

steve@beachcomber.news