Following reports that a person in Westwood was holding an object resembling a rifle Wednesday afternoon, several blocks in the North Village were cordoned off while LAPD and UCPD officers investigated the claim.
After officers searched an apartment and removed two weapons, they determined the object in question was in fact a crossbow, said Nancy Greenstein, university police director of community services, adding that officers also removed a pellet gun from the apartment.
Police helicopters circled the area for several hours, and officers patrolled the streets with rifles and handguns drawn. Several officers were also seen entering an apartment at 547 Landfair Ave. wearing protective gear.
The incident was first reported at about 1:30 p.m., and several reports from witnesses indicated police began blocking off the area between 1:45 and 2. The streets were reopened by 3:20, at which time the police had not taken a suspect into custody.
A neighbor observed someone on Landfair holding the object, according to the UCPD Web site, indicating the person could have been in public with the weapon.
Officer Norma Eisenman, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles Police Department, said it is illegal to have a crossbow in public.
She said officers were already in the area following up on reports of a man with a BB gun when an officer spotted someone holding an object that resembled a rifle.
After that observation, LAPD and UCPD set up a perimeter and began redirecting traffic around the area, Eisenman added.
“One small unit was in to do a shots-fired investigation, then they got another call saying someone saw someone else with a rifle and so they sent in more officers and blocked off the street,” Officer Ramos from the LAPD said.
Several residents in the area said they were told by police officers to stay in the center of their apartments and officers holding rifles were spotted on the roof of an adjacent apartment complex.
“I was driving home at 1:55, and I saw the police putting the caution tape line up. So I parked and came by. I heard it was “˜some guy with a rifle,'” said Jeff Ostrin, a third-year mechanical engineering student and bystander.
Steve Mirsky, a third-year history and Russian language and literature student, said the person in question may have been one of his neighbors who has a crossbow that looks like a rifle.
Jeff Creaon, a fifth-year art history student, said one of his neighbors called LAPD about the incident after mistaking the crossbow for a rifle.
“We’ve been cooped up in our apartment for hours. Someone in the building next to us saw our neighbor playing with his crossbow, and the butt of it looks like a rifle, so they called it in as a guy with a shotgun,” Creaon said.
With reports from Jessica Roy, Bruin contributor.