Guns, Ammo Discovered In Truck Of Man Loitering Outside North Hollywood School
STUDIO CITY (CBSLA) – A 60-year-old man who was acting suspiciously outside a North Hollywood school earlier this month was arrested after guns and ammunition were found in his truck.
The Los Angeles School Police Department (LASPD) Tuesday reported that the incident in question occurred a week before his arrest on Oct. 11 outside Walter Reed Middle School, located at 4525 Irvine Ave.
Russell Polsky was arrested on three counts each of possession of a firearm in a school zone and child annoyance.
On Oct. 11, officers were dispatched to Reed on a report of a suspicious man, later identified as Polsky, sitting in a truck outside the school attempting to talk to female students, LASPD reports.
Officers arrived and found Polsky sitting in the back passenger seat of his truck with a rifle bag in the driver's seat, police said. Polsky then told officers he had guns in the vehicle.
Officers then searched the truck and found "a loaded shotgun, an unloaded AK-47-style assault rifle, an unloaded handgun, loaded rifle magazines and a bag containing ammo," LASPD reported in an Instagram post.
Polsky was arrested at around 1 p.m. according to L.A. County Sheriff's Department inmate records.
A school police spokesperson told CBS2 Wednesday that Polsky has since plead out and the case has been adjudicated. It's unclear what exactly he plead to or what is sentence was.
Police said Polsky is believed to be the same man who tried to lure a group of girls into his truck near the school a week prior.
Gilbert Gamez, the president of the Los Angeles School Police Association -- the union which represents LASPD officers -- discussed the incident at an L.A. Unified School District Board meeting on Oct. 16.
Gamez told the board that Polsky was trying to "lure young ladies into the back of his car."
Gamez also added that the shotgun discovered in Polksy's truck had a pistol grip, which Gamez said is illegal in California.
"These weapons are made to be hidden under trench coats or down pant legs to sneak in places, the shotgun round is very aggressive" Gamez said.
Parents and students who spoke to CBS2 were on edge after hearing the news.
"It's scary, yeah. They were thinking about putting, like, a thing to cover, but they never went through with it," student Alexandra Shultz said.
"That is insane," parent Kristen Patlian said. "It's a parent's worst fear. You bring your child to school and the world that we live in now that's the fear since Parkland since Columbine since every school shooting that we've had. That's my deepest fear that something like this would happen. So to hear that it is in our backyard, in our community, it's unbelievably disturbing and shocking."
