A West Hollywood rooftop rifle scare shut down a busy stretch of Santa Monica Boulevard on Saturday night after callers reported people on top of an apartment building with what looked like a gun, prompting a large response from deputies and a helicopter overhead that many of us heard as a clue that something serious was up.
According to sheriff’s radio traffic reviewed by WEHOonline, a dispatcher told responding units that several people were on the roof of The Dylan apartments at 7111 Santa Monica Boulevard, dressed in black and “passing a bag around,” with one person reported to be holding “a gun with a strap” and pointing it toward the caller.
Deputies from the West Hollywood Sheriff’s Station moved in and cleared Santa Monica Boulevard between Poinsettia Place and La Brea Avenue while an LASD helicopter orbited above the Eastside intersection. The Dylan, a midrise apartment complex with rooftop decks overlooking the corridor, sits at the northwest corner of Santa Monica and Poinsettia, across from the West Hollywood Gateway center.
Law enforcement sources said deputies later found an air rifle on the rooftop, but the people seen in the initial call were gone by the time units made it to the top of the building. The street was reopened a short time later, once deputies had searched the roof and surrounding areas and determined there was no ongoing threat.
WEHOonline spoke with the West Hollywood Sherrif’s Department Sunday morning and confirmed that no arrests were made and no injuries were reported.
I’m grateful for the response of local police, and of course for the person who called this in. Gunporn in the U.S. is so out of control… and the fact that some people think it’s okay to brandish even an air rifle in public let alone at the top of a building and aim it at surroundings? What the hell.