Security Guard Arrested After Shooting YouTube Personality Outside LA Synagogue
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) — A YouTube personality was shot by a security guard Thursday outside a synagogue and Hebrew girls school in the Fairfax District of Los Angeles while live-streaming video from the location.
The security guard, 44-year-old Edduin Zelayagrunfeld, was arrested and booked on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon with a firearm.
The shooting was reported just after 2 p.m. on the 7600 block of Beverly Boulevard, according to an LAPD spokesperson. The Etz Jacob Torah Center is located at 7663 Beverly Blvd.
The victim was later identified as Orange County transgender woman Zhoie Perez, 35, according to CBSLA's Dave Lopez.
Perez said the guard was aiming at Perez's midsection but the doctors told her the shot "was a graze" to her leg.
She was taken to the hospital and treated.
"I'm just taking shots of the thing, he comes up super-aggressive, I'm not looking to talk to that guy at that point," Perez told reporters.
The shooting appeared to have been captured live on the channel of YouTube user Furry Potato. A earlier video posted a short time earlier showed the cameraman being confronted by the security guard.
Perez says she is part of the First Amendment auditors community on YouTube. They are users who record videos in public, they say, to exercise their First Amendment rights.
The school principal said the whole thing worried her and the students.
"An individual was filming our girls at the school. In the building. The perimeter of the building including all the windows and exits. This caused a great deal of anxiety to both our staff and our students," said Yehudis Farkash. "During the incident we did try to keep the girls calm and the building was placed on lockdown."
A man who says he saw what happened said he also was concerned.
"I asked her several times, 'what are you doing? Why are you taking pictures right in the doorway where all these young girls are?' It's a synagogue, like you know. She would not respond. She came and got very close and then far and it was bizarre behavior," said the witness.
Police say Perez did not commit a crime.