Timothy Brennan & Robert Ladd | |
|---|---|
| Born | March 2, 1959 (Brennan) February 19, 1959 (Ladd) |
| Died | November 16, 2021 (aged 62) (Brennan) |
| Police career | |
| Country | United States |
| Department | Compton Police Department Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department Garden Grove Police Department |
| Service years | 1982 – 2014 |
| Rank | Police Officers - 1982–1988 Detectives - 1988–2015 |
| Other work | Gang Work Experts Seminars and Training Los Angeles Riots Experts Experts on Tupac Shakur and The Notorious B.I.G./"Biggie Smalls" Murder Cases |
Timothy M. Brennan[1] (March 2, 1959 – November 16, 2021)[2] and Robert Ladd (born February 19, 1959) joined the Compton Police Department as officers in 1982 and 1983, respectively. In 1988, they were promoted to become Compton's two-man gang unit. The police department could only afford to have two people at the time, even though many smaller cities typically had up to four times as many. As the gang unit, Brennan and Ladd were responsible for dealing with and investigating over 55 gangs in the 10.1 square mile area that makes up the City of Compton. They served as the primary or assisting investigating officers on hundreds of gang-related murders and thousands of gang-related shootings, and witnessed instances of gang-related rapes, robberies, drive-by shootings, and shootings at police officers.
Brennan and Ladd were present in Compton during the burgeoning days of Gangsta rap when it began in the 1980s and knew many of the artists involved in what would become the hip hop genre. They investigated and/or assisted investigations involving such figures as Tupac Shakur, Marion "Suge" Knight, David "DJ Quik" Blake, Eric "Eazy-E" Wright, Calvin "Snoop Dogg" Broadus, Eric "Lil Eazy" Wright, Jr., Jayceon "The Game" Taylor, and Christopher "Biggie Smalls" Wallace, among others. In the 1980s, when Brennan and Ladd were a presence on the Compton streets, a young DJ Quik released an underground rap song called "Blondie," describing Brennan.
Brennan and Ladd are featured in the Noisey/Vice.com film The Story Of 'Fuck Tha Police', starring N.W.A members Ice Cube and DJ Yella discussing the making of their eponymous seminal rap protest song.[3] They are also heavily featured in the three-part A&E miniseries Streets of Compton, executive produced and narrated by rapper The Game.[4]
Brennan and Ladd each retired from law enforcement in 2014 and resided in Orange County. They remained involved in providing gang training to schools, businesses, federal and local police and prosecutors across the country, U.S. military personnel, and police departments in countries in Europe. They provided gang-related intelligence and evidence for prosecution for law enforcement and prosecutorial agencies across the country. As gang investigators, they traveled extensively throughout California, Texas, Nevada, Illinois, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Washington, Arizona, and Iowa on gang-related investigations.
Their book Once Upon A Time In Compton, written with author/screenwriter Lolita Files, about their years in the Compton Gang Unit, the rise of Gangsta rap, gang wars, the L.A. riots, the investigations of the murders of rappers Tupac Shakur and The Notorious B.I.G., and the fall of the Compton Police Department, was published on April 25, 2017.[5]
Brennan died on November 16, 2021. The cause of his death was not made public at the time, but Ladd later confirmed to DJ Vlad that Brennan died from cancer.[citation needed]