Sheriff seeks help finding assault rifle that may have fallen out of cruiser, retraces deputies' steps
Deputies first noticed the Colt M4 assault rifle was missing from the trunk of their squad car on Saturday night sometime between 10:30 and 11 p.m., according to a statement issued by the Sheriff's Department.
The weapon had been kept in "a black, hard-shelled storage case" inside the vehicle's trunk, along with five magazines, each loaded with 30 rounds of ammunition.
The Sheriff's Department asked the public to help locate the assault rifle and identified the route that the deputies traveled Saturday night in the hopes of pinpointing the location of the weapon.
The deputies traveled about four miles in total, heading north on Normandie Avenue near the Sheriff's Department South L.A. Station before turning westbound on Imperial Highway, northbound on Hawthorne Boulevard, then westbound on 104th Street to Inglewood Avenue.
"Upon realizing the rifle was missing, personnel from the South Los Angeles Station immediately initiated a search of the station parking lot and retraced the deputies' route of travel," the Sheriff's Department said in the statement. "Surveillance footage from the area is currently being reviewed, and local law enforcement agencies have been notified of the incident."
The department also said it was initiating an investigation to determine "whether processes and procedures were followed." The union representing L.A. County sheriff's deputies did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Anyone with information about the missing rifle or with footage along the deputies' route is asked to contact the Sheriff's South L.A. station at (323) 820-6700.
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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
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President Donald Trump has helped Speaker Mike Johnson survive every political storm of his speakership. Now, Johnson is stuck in a crisis of Trump's own making over Jeffrey Epstein — and there's no clear way forward without risking the ire of the speaker's most critical ally. Despite Johnson's efforts to quell the furor inside the GOP this week, he and Trump are now getting an outcome they'd sought to avoid after House Republicans joined Democrats on Wednesday for a high-stakes vote demanding the release of the Epstein files. The move took place in a House Oversight subcommittee and will soon require the GOP-led panel to sign off on a subpoena to Trump's Justice Department. Johnson knew in advance that tensions could escalate. Kentucky Rep. James Comer, who leads that Oversight panel, told CNN he cautioned Johnson last week that his panel would likely move forward with a subpoena related to Epstein if given the chance. 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He pushed back on suggestions that the House had been brought to a standstill to avoid taking Epstein votes, insisting Republicans 'don't have any fear' and instead turned the blame on Democrats. 'No one in Congress is blocking Epstein documents. No one in Congress is doing that. What we're doing here, Republicans are preventing Democrats from making a mockery of the Rules Committee process because we refuse to engage in their political charade,' he said. He said that Congress 'will evaluate any necessary measures' to undertake if the Trump administration convinces courts to unseal the grand jury transcripts in the Epstein investigation. (The administration has already run into an early legal roadblock, with the judge blocking their request ). But Johnson also struck a careful balance when asked if he backed Comer's effort to subpoena convicted Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell. 'Every single one of us are for maximum transparency, and we'll use every power that we have to ensure that that's done. If they see fit to bring in Ghislaine Maxwell for testimony, that's fine,' he said when asked by CNN if he backed Comer's move, though he then raised questions about her credibility. 'Can we trust what she's gonna say?' With the House now gone for five weeks, Johnson and his team have a temporary reprieve from the outrage over Epstein. But it won't last long. Just days after lawmakers return in September, Johnson will have to deal with a rogue push by a gang of GOP hardliners to force a full vote for the release of the Epstein files on the floor of the House. That group of roughly a dozen Republicans, led by Rep. Thomas Massie, are using a maneuver known as a discharge petition to circumvent Johnson and force a bill to the floor with the help of Democrats. Massie has been vocal that if GOP leaders attempt to kill his maneuver, they'll lose their majority next November. 'The Epstein files are symbolic of what energized MAGA, which was this notion that you could give Republicans both majorities and put Donald Trump in the White House, and this group of people that were so powerful and so rich that they couldn't be touched by the law or by the judicial system, would finally get exposed,' Massie said. 'And if people believe that whole deal was off, that Trump and the Republicans aren't going to do that anymore, then they're going to be apathetic and disengaged in the midterms.' Johnson may have no choice but to bring the measure to the floor. Republicans on the House Rules panel have already warned Johnson they will not help him kill the resolution, as he's sought to do with similar rogue pushes from members, according to the GOP member involved in the talks. 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Here we have one big national scandal slash conspiracy that we were this close to getting the details on so that's why the fact it isn't happening is just fanning flames of more conspiracy. People are assuming the worst and they are going to until the details get released,' Burlison said. And some Republicans are frustrated that Johnson's own messaging has been, at times, unclear. For instance, some were upset that Johnson called on Congress to 'put everything out there' on Epstein on a conservative podcast – just after he had instructed his own Rules Committee to take a vote rejecting Democrats' Epstein transparency push. They argued that the disconnect in the GOP message opened up their own members to vulnerabilities, such as Democratic attacks, and only fueled more scrutiny in Congress. Rep. Ralph Norman, who sits on the House Rules Committee and did vote for that Democratic transparency measure, warned that the pressure for the administration to release information related to Epstein will not die down during the time that the House is in its weeks-long August recess. 'It's not going to die down. I know. If you assume that, the public decides that anyway. I don't assume anything, particularly this. This transcends politics. This is about 13, 14, 15-year-old girls getting abused. Nah, this is above politics. This is beyond politics,' Norman told CNN. (Other members are irked that members like Norman have backed the Democratic amendments and have signed onto Massie's discharge petition, and yet continue to sit on Johnson's powerful Rules panel.) Even some Republicans who are demanding votes on Epstein transparency measures acknowledge the difficult position Johnson is in. 'I think the Speaker is doing the job he has to do' GOP Rep. Scott Perry told CNN. Perry was one of the House Republicans who defied their own leadership to vote to subpoena the Department of Justice files related to Jeffrey Epstein. 'I just think it's important that the American people know what's occurred,' Perry later told CNN. GOP Rep. Keith Self added, 'Speaker Johnson has a tough job. I think he's doing a great job managing all of the influences in our conference, so I'll leave it at that.' House GOP Conference Chair Lisa McClain argued that Republicans have to strike a balance but not let Democrats push them off message as they head back to their districts for five weeks. 'They need to do what they think is right for their district,' McClain told CNN when asked about the advice she'd give to members addressing the issue back home. 'But number two, focus on the 'One Big Beautiful bill' and all the wins that we're getting.' CNN's Nicky Robertson, Veronica Stracqualursi and Morgan Rimmer contributed to this report.