The Getty House was broken into early Sunday through a smashed window, the police said. Mayor Karen Bass said she and her family were safe.
The Getty House in Los Angeles, the official residence of Mayor Karen Bass, was broken into early Sunday, the Los Angeles Police Department said. The police took the intruder into custody, officials said.
Details on the break-in were scant, but the police said on social media that the intruder had entered the Getty House after smashing a window around 6:40 a.m., while Ms. Bass and her family were inside.
Ms. Bass’s office said in a statement that she and her family were safe and had not sustained any injuries.
“The mayor is grateful to L.A.P.D. for responding and arresting the suspect,” Ms. Bass’s office said in a statement.
The police did not identify the suspect and said that the investigation was ongoing. The suspect is currently being processed, and officials will then release more details, Tony Im, a spokesman for the Los Angeles Police Department, said.
The Getty House is in Windsor Square, a neighborhood in Central Los Angeles. The city, with a population of about four million, was struggling with a surge in homelessness and violent crime when Ms. Bass took office in December 2022, two years into the pandemic.
But data show that rates of violent crime have gone down in the city more recently. According to the Los Angeles Police’s report on crime in 2023, homicides went down that year by 17 percent from the year before.
There were slight upticks in some nonviolent crimes, however. Property crimes increased by about 3.5 percent, and motor vehicle thefts went up by 2 percent, compared with the previous year, the report said.
The Los Angeles Police said they would not categorize the Getty House break-in until booking is completed.
In her State of the City Address this month, Ms. Bass hailed the city’s progress in lowering crime rates and homelessness.
“Over the last year, we have done big things together,“ Ms. Bass said. “Thousands more unhoused Angelenos came inside, and homicide and violent crime came down last year.”
In September 2022, before she took office as mayor, Ms. Bass’s personal home in the city’s Baldwin Vista neighborhood was burglarized. Two thieves stole two handguns at the time.
In recent years, several politicians have been targeted in break-ins and swatting attempts.
One high-profile case involved Nancy Pelosi’s home in San Francisco in October 2022, when she was speaker of the House. Ms. Pelosi was not there at the time, but her husband, Paul Pelosi, was assaulted by an intruder with a hammer. Mr. Pelosi sustained severe injuries, including a skull fracture.
And last December, Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene said that she was swatted, or subjected to a hoax call, on Christmas Day. It was not the first time she had been targeted of swatting, she said. “This is like the 8th time,” she wrote on social media after the incident.
Source: Elections - nytimes.com
