Man accused of having sniper rifles, thousand of ammo in Hollywood high-rise home appears in court
FOX 11 News got its first look at Braxton Johnson, the man accused of having high-powered weapons in his high-rise apartment in Hollywood.
LOS ANGELES – A 25-year-old man is behind bars after police say he had a sniper rifle and a cache of other weapons in his Hollywood high-rise apartment.
When the Los Angeles Police Department first found a sniper rifle, two assault rifles and a “thousand of rounds” of ammo from the home of Braxton Johnson, both the public – and the police – initially feared Johnson may have been plotting a possible mass shooting. But after a series of investigation, LAPD announced Thursday night that there were “no indications that any persons were threatened with a firearm nor have [LAPD] identified any intent by Johnson to plan a mass shooting incident.”
LAPD’s revelation comes a day after officials thanked the public and security staff for preventing a possible mass shooting from taking place.
On Wednesday, the Los Angeles Police Department initially responded to a call of a man possibly suffering from a mental health crisis, saying the security guards at the high-rise building located at Sunset Boulevard and Gordon Avenue reported a resident had been making threats. Officers then searched the 25-year-old suspect’s Hollywood home and found all the aforementioned weapons on the 18th floor – where he lives.
LAPD: Weapons seizure likely prevented a mass shooting
Los Angeles police officers seized several high-powered weapons from a man accused of making criminal threats.
LAPD busts man with cache of weapons, ammo, thwarting potential mass shooting
A neighbor on the 18th floor recorded the moments LAPD tried to make contact with the suspect. An arsenal was found inside his apartment along with body armor after he allegedly made criminal threats.
The apartment had large windows with a non-obstructed view of the Gordon Street Park downstairs, and some of the rifles were pointed down, outside the windows, LAPD Lt. Leonid Tsap said during a press conference Wednesday.
One neighbor said Johnson had mentioned he had a military background and that Johnson believed the CIA was after him.
In addition to the sniper rifle and the assault rifles, LAPD also found a shotgun and three pistols. All the guns were unregistered. Johnson was arrested after the search.
A day before LAPD walked back the possible mass shooting plot allegations, Tsap gave the public kudos for alerting police that something felt off when the 25-year-old suspect had allegedly suffered a mental health crisis.
“They notified us and worked together with the police to bring this to a safe conclusion. It’s a great police work and a great teamwork by community members and our police officers to take the suspect off the streets and possibly prevent something of a heinous crime like a mass shooting,” Tsap said.
Johnson’s bail was set at $500,000.
Feb 4 (Reuters) – A federal law prohibiting marijuana users from possessing firearms is unconstitutional, a federal judge in Oklahoma has concluded, citing last year’s U.S. Supreme Court ruling that significantly expanded gun rights.
U.S. District Judge Patrick Wyrick, an appointee of former Republican President Donald Trump in Oklahoma City, on Friday dismissed an indictment against a man charged in August with violating that ban, saying it infringed his right to bear arms under the U.S. Constitution’s Second Amendment.
Wyrick said that while the government can protect the public from dangerous people possessing guns, it could not argue Jared Harrison’s “mere status as a user of marijuana justifies stripping him of his fundamental right to possess a firearm.”
He said using marijuana was “not in and of itself a violent, forceful, or threatening act,” and noted that Oklahoma is one of a number of states where the drug, still illegal under federal law, can be legally bought for medical uses.
“The mere use of marijuana carries none of the characteristics that the Nation’s history and tradition of firearms regulation supports,” Wyrick wrote.
Laura Deskin, a public defender representing Harrison, said the ruling was a “step in the right direction for a large number of Americans who deserve the right to bear arms and protect their homes just like any other American.” She called marijuana the most commonly used drug illegal at the federal level.
The U.S. Department of Justice did not respond to request for comment but is likely to appeal.
The decision marked the latest instance of a court declaring a gun regulation unconstitutional after the U.S. Supreme Court’s 6-3 conservative majority in June ruled that the Second Amendment protects a person’s right to carry a handgun in public for self-defense.
That ruling, New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen, announced a new test for assessing firearms laws, saying restrictions must be “consistent with this nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation.”
On Thursday, the New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals cited that decision in declaring unconstitutional a federal law barring people under domestic violence restraining orders from owning firearms.
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Letitia James has demanded documents and testimony related to The Trace’s 2021 investigation into the LaPierres’ travel and the NRA’s employment of their niece.
Wayne LaPierre and his wife, Susan LaPierre, pose for a photo at the 18th Annual Larry King Cardiac Foundation Gala in 2012. Paul Morigi/Getty
The attorney general of New York State issued a subpoena last week to Susan LaPierre — the wife of National Rifle Association CEO Wayne LaPierre — in connection with its lawsuit that seeks to dissolve the NRA for an alleged pattern of self-dealing.
The subpoena, dated January 5th, is lengthy and wide-ranging, and covers revelations first reported in The Trace’s 2021 investigation into the LaPierres, published in partnership with The New Yorker. The development shows that the attorney general, Letitia James, is following evidence into new areas, despite indications that the judge may be skeptical of her bid to dismantle the NRA.
Two of The Trace’s stories concerned a 2013 hunting trip in Botswana, where LaPierre was captured on video repeatedly shooting an elephant at close range and failing to kill it, forcing the contractor whose company paid for the excursion — Tony Makris — to step in and fire the fatal shot. The footage, which had been hidden from public view for eight years until it was obtained by The Trace, also showed Susan shooting an elephant. After killing the creature, she cut off its tail, held it in the air, and shouted, “Victory!”
Later, the LaPierres secretly shipped the elephants’ front feet, along with other animal parts, back to the United States. A taxidermist converted the trophies into decorations for the couple’s home, including leather-topped stools made from the feet. The articles showed that the costs associated with the shipping and taxidermy were covered by Makris’s company, Under Wild Skies, Inc., in seeming violation of the NRA’s rules regarding conflicts of interest and gifts from contractors.
The final installment of the series focused on misleading and possibly false statements LaPierre made under oath during the NRA’s bankruptcy proceedings last year. LaPierre testified that, in the wake of the 2012 mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, he had used a vendor’s yacht, for free, as a “security retreat” in the Bahamas — a place to be safe when he was facing threats to his life. The Trace revealed that the first of six such trips, in July 2013, coincided with the wedding of Wayne and Susan’s niece, Colleen Sterner. The LaPierres attended the wedding, held at the Atlantis Resort, on Paradise Island, and they traveled the Caribbean on the boat with Sterner and her husband.
Two years later, the NRA hired Sterner to work under Susan at the Women’s Leadership Forum, a program within the NRA that cultivates wealthy female donors. She received expensive travel perks that were not available to her colleagues. In testimony, Wayne LaPierre said Sterner was an integral employee and that the costs carried a legitimate business purpose. But former staffers, who worked on WLF events and spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the niece occasionally performed menial tasks, but was otherwise not around.
In its subpoena, the Attorney General’s Office demanded all documents concerning the owner of the yacht, David McKenzie, and his wife, Laura Stanton, who, The Trace’s series showed, both have stakes in multiple entities that do business with the NRA. Moreover, James has requested all records “relating to safaris or international trips” taken by the LaPierres that were paid for in full or in part by, among others, the McKenzies, Makris, or Under Wild Skies, Inc.
Additionally, James wants all “documents relating to the NRA’s decision to hire and use the services of Colleen Sterner,” as well as all “documents and communications relating to the business purposes and actual activities undertaken by you, Wayne LaPierre, Colleen Sterner, or your family members during travel paid for or reimbursed at any time” by the NRA.
The subpoena orders Susan LaPierre to furnish the documents by January 31 and to appear for a deposition at NRA headquarters, in Fairfax, Virginia, on February 4.
Neither the NRA nor the Attorney General’s office responded to requests for comment.