Man Taken Into Custody After Allegedly Threatening To Shoot People Inside LA Times Building
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — Authorities say a man was in custody after he allegedly threatened to shoot people inside the LA Times building.
Officers subsequently swarmed the building, establishing a perimeter, in search of the suspect.
At the time of the disturbance, there were more than 100 employees inside the building. Authorities said the incident started just after 7:30 p.m.
Police arrived quickly. Police headquarters is across the street from the Times building.
About an hour later, after a search, officers inside the building told KCAL9's Randy Paige that one man was in custody.
The suspect, a 28-year-old man, was an employee of a business that rents office space on the second floor in the LA Times building.
The suspect reportedly told witnesses he was depressed, didn't mind killing people, didn't want to go to jail and allegedly handed off a bag of bullets to someone, the Times reported.
Paige spoke to witnesses who told him the man was an employee of a phone sales office.
"We were all on phone calls," said witness-employee Bissonae Belair, "and then there was this big scare."
She told Paige no one was really paying attention until the unidentified suspect mentioned the gun.
Belair added, "It was pretty crazy. That was the first time that I've been through something like that and I would never want to go through it again."
"The person allegedly walked up to another employee and made a threat about shooting someone," said Lt. Lonnie Benson of the LAPD.
Paige asked Belair if she's ever heard the employee make a threatening comment before.
"No, not at all," she said, "I've seen him around, of course. We work with him. But we've never seen him [make] any threat."
Police said a weapon was not recovered and they told Paige they weren't entirely sure if any laws were broken.
They will decide whether to press charges, they said, after questioning the suspect more extensively.
