Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility
Police: 'High Chance' of Hollywood Mass Shooting Prevented
gvw_ap_news
By Associated Press
Published 2 years ago on
February 3, 2023

Share

Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A “high chance” of a mass shooting in Hollywood has been thwarted by police seizing a cache of guns and ammunition in a high-rise apartment where several rifles were pointed toward a nearby park, the Los Angeles Police Department said.

Braxton Johnson was taken into custody Tuesday after he allegedly made violent threats involving weapons to security staff at the apartment building and people outside, the agency said Wednesday.

Police searched Johnson’s apartment and found two assault rifles and high-capacity ammunition magazines, all of which are illegal in California, as well as three handguns, a sniper rifle, a shotgun and more than 1,000 rounds of ammunition.

Investigators have not said whether they uncovered any additional evidence of a plot to target the park, or Johnson’s motive in pointing the rifles toward the area. Details about the threats that authorities said he made Tuesday have not been released.

“From what we’re seeing right now, there’s a high chance that the officers — and obviously security staff and the people who called — prevented a mass shooting from happening,” LAPD Lt. Leonid Tsap said Wednesday during a news conference.

Authorities have not identified the park, but online maps show a dog park next to the apartment complex where Johnson lived. The apartment’s management company referred media inquiries to police.

The cache of guns and their setup in the high-rise apartment were reminiscent of a 2017 massacre in Las Vegas, where the gunman fired 1,057 bullets from the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay resort in the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history. He killed 58 people below the hotel who were enjoying an outdoor country music festival on the Las Vegas Strip. Authorities later attributed the deaths of two more people, both of whom had been badly wounded, to the concert shooting.

Johnson, 25, remained jailed Thursday on suspicion of making criminal threats. His bail was set at $500,000. It was not immediately clear whether he had an attorney who could speak on his behalf.

The district attorney’s office is reviewing the case for potential charges.

Officers answered a report of a possible mental health situation Tuesday morning and went to the building on Gordon Street at Sunset Boulevard, an LAPD statement said.

Johnson was living alone in an apartment building on the 18th floor with large windows that offer an “unobstructed view of a park and a public area downstairs, and some of the rifles were pointed outside the windows,” Tsap said.

While Johnson was unarmed when he was taken into custody, Tsap said the weapons seized had “the ability to inflict a lot of damage to a lot of people.”

Johnson had recently moved into the apartment. He already was under investigation in a state on the East Coast for a violent crime, police said. They didn’t immediately share other details.

RELATED TOPICS:

DON'T MISS

What Are Fresno Real Estate Experts Predicting for 2025 and Beyond?

DON'T MISS

First California EV Mandates Hit Automakers This Year. Most Are Not Even Close

DON'T MISS

Hey PG&E Customers, Get Ready for New ‘Transaction Fees’

DON'T MISS

Fresno County Ending ‘Squaw Valley’ Fight After Latest Court Ruling

DON'T MISS

Exclusive: Tesla to Delay US Launch of Affordable EV, a Lower-Cost Model Y, Sources Say

DON'T MISS

Clovis Reconsiders Recycling Vote. Will a Campaign Contribution Matter?

DON'T MISS

Gov. Newsom Offers $50K Reward in 2022 Kings County Homicide

DON'T MISS

Trump’s White House Launches COVID Website That Criticizes WHO, Fauci and Biden

DON'T MISS

Fresno ‘Powers Up’ the Nation’s Largest Combined Solar and Battery Storage Project

DON'T MISS

Trump Admin Asserts COVID-19 Originated in Chinese Lab, Targets Fauci

DON'T MISS

Vendors Back at Fresno’s Art Hop? Survey Wants to Know What You Think

DON'T MISS

Russian Missile Attack Kills One, Wounds 112 in Ukraine’s Kharkiv, Officials Say

UP NEXT

LA’s Schools Chief Knows What It’s Like to Be Undocumented

UP NEXT

Valero Books $1.1 Billion Impairment, May Idle California Refinery

UP NEXT

Commercial Salmon Season Is Shut Down Again. Will CA’s Iconic Fish Ever Recover?

UP NEXT

What To Know About California Reparations: Is State’s Apology the Beginning or the End?

UP NEXT

Butler, Curry Lead Warriors Past Grizzlies to Secure Seventh Seed in West Playoffs

UP NEXT

California Is Preparing to Take Trump to Court to Stop His Tariffs

UP NEXT

7 Takeaways: How the DMV Allows Dangerous Drivers to Stay on the Road

UP NEXT

California Attorney General Declines to Join Musk’s Lawsuit Against OpenAI

UP NEXT

Oil Company Fined Record $18 Million for Defying CA Orders to Stop Work on Pipeline

UP NEXT

Homeless Man Wins Life-Changing $1 Million on Lottery Scratcher in SLO

Clovis Reconsiders Recycling Vote. Will a Campaign Contribution Matter?

16 hours ago

Gov. Newsom Offers $50K Reward in 2022 Kings County Homicide

17 hours ago

Trump’s White House Launches COVID Website That Criticizes WHO, Fauci and Biden

17 hours ago

Fresno ‘Powers Up’ the Nation’s Largest Combined Solar and Battery Storage Project

18 hours ago

Trump Admin Asserts COVID-19 Originated in Chinese Lab, Targets Fauci

18 hours ago

Vendors Back at Fresno’s Art Hop? Survey Wants to Know What You Think

19 hours ago

Russian Missile Attack Kills One, Wounds 112 in Ukraine’s Kharkiv, Officials Say

19 hours ago

Iran Says Nuclear Deal Is Possible if Washington Is Realistic

19 hours ago

49ers Look to Strengthen Depleted Defense in NFL Draft

19 hours ago

Habit Burger & Grill Quietly Drops Impossible Burger From Menu

19 hours ago

Hey PG&E Customers, Get Ready for New ‘Transaction Fees’

Pacific Gas & Electric customers are already paying some of the nation’s highest rates for electricity, and their bills could be g...

15 hours ago

15 hours ago

Hey PG&E Customers, Get Ready for New ‘Transaction Fees’

16 hours ago

Fresno County Ending ‘Squaw Valley’ Fight After Latest Court Ruling

Tesla Inc. vehicle facility is pictured in Costa Mesa, California, U.S., November 1, 2023. (REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo)
16 hours ago

Exclusive: Tesla to Delay US Launch of Affordable EV, a Lower-Cost Model Y, Sources Say

16 hours ago

Clovis Reconsiders Recycling Vote. Will a Campaign Contribution Matter?

California Gov. Gavin Newsom speaks during a press conference in Los Angeles, Wednesday, Sept. 25, 2024. Newsom vetoed a landmark bill aimed at establishing first-in-the-nation safety measures for large artificial intelligence models Sunday, Sept. 29. (AP Photo/Eric Thayer, File)
17 hours ago

Gov. Newsom Offers $50K Reward in 2022 Kings County Homicide

The logo of the World Health Organization is seen at the WHO headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, January 28, 2025. (REUTERS/Denis Balibouse/File Photo)
17 hours ago

Trump’s White House Launches COVID Website That Criticizes WHO, Fauci and Biden

18 hours ago

Fresno ‘Powers Up’ the Nation’s Largest Combined Solar and Battery Storage Project

18 hours ago

Trump Admin Asserts COVID-19 Originated in Chinese Lab, Targets Fauci

Help continue the work that gets you the news that matters most.

Search

Send this to a friend