Police in Los Angeles arrested a suspect following a break-in at the home of the city’s mayor, the former Democratic representative Karen Bass, on Sunday morning, officials said.
Bass and her family were not harmed when a man entered Getty House, the LA mayor’s official residence on Irving Boulevard, while they were home.
The Los Angeles police department identified the suspect as Ephraim Hunter. The 29-year-old’s motives are still under investigation.
“Around 6.40am this morning an individual smashed a window to gain entry into the Getty House while occupied,” the Los Angeles police department said in a statement on social media, adding that police responded and took a suspect into custody without incident.
“Mayor Bass and her family were not injured and are safe. The mayor is grateful to LAPD for responding and arresting the suspect,” her office said in a statement.
This was the second time Bass has faced a home break-in. In September 2022, while she served in the US House of Representatives and ran for mayor, two men were accused of breaking into her residence at the time in Baldwin Vista and stealing two handguns. Two months later, Bass defeated the billionaire real estate developer Rick Caruso and became the first woman and second Black person to run Los Angeles.
The intrusion comes the same week as a sentence is expected in the case of David DePape for
attacking Paul Pelosi, the husband of the former House speaker Nancy Pelosi, in October 2022. DePape has been convicted of breaking into the couple’s home in San Francisco and attacking Paul Pelosi with a hammer, breaking his skull. DePape linked his attack to a false pro-Trump conspiracy theory.
Top US officials have faced a rise in attacks and violent threats, especially since the January 6 insurrection in 2021 by extremist supporters of Donald Trump intent on overturning his defeat by Joe Biden in the presidential election.
Targets have spanned the political divide. A California man awaits trial on charges that he plotted to kill the supreme court justice Brett Kavanaugh, a Trump nominee, at his Maryland home.
The Associated Press contributed reporting
Source: US Politics - theguardian.com
