Los Angeles police on Tuesday arrested a man for making a range of criminal threats, and during the course of their investigation recovered a large amount of “high-powered” firearms.
Los Angeles Police Department
According to a press release, officers were dispatched to the scene of possible mental illness call regarding a male individual living on the 18th floor of a high-rise apartment building located on the corner of Sunset Boulevard and Gordon Street, just west of State Route 101.
That man, identified as 24-year-old Los Angeles resident Braxton Johnson, was arrested after officers “determined the elements of Criminal Threats had been met,” police said.
Officers said that Johnson had guns pointed at a public park below his apartment.
The suspect was allegedly threatening security staff members at the apartment and other people outside of the building. Police say that while he wasn’t armed at the time of making the threats, the verbiage did involve weapons.
Investigators were able to obtain a search warrant for the suspect’s residence, where they located “several high-powered rifles, shotguns, handguns and a large cache of various munitions.”
In all, officers seized two assault rifles, a sniper rifle, one shotgun, three pistols and more than 1,000 rounds of ammunition. Johnson also had several high capacity magazines, scopes and body armor.
Two of the weapons were reported to be illegal in the state of California.
Johnson is being held on $500,000 bail.
During a press conference Wednesday evening, LAPD officers said that the arrest “helped prevent something of a heinous crime, like a mass shooting.”
Police noted that the suspect’s violent criminal history can be traced to at least one other state, where an additional investigation was also said to be ongoing. They did not disclose exactly what state Johnson was from.
They said that he recently moved into the high-rise apartment, but did not have an exact date for when he moved to the area.
“We’re grateful to all that actually did call the police,” said LAPD’s Public Information Officer during the press conference. “That’s exactly what we need from the rest of the public. When they see something they need to say something and then, obviously, we as a department, we as an organization can work together with the public to protect our city.”
The case has been submitted to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office for filing consideration.
