Los Angeles police arrested a man with guns and explosives who was planning to attend the Los Angeles Pride parade on Sunday.
According to the Los Angeles Times, authorities said the suspect told them he was in town for the city’s annual LGBT Pride event. The police were called to scene after a concerned neighbor saw a “suspected burglar” in the neighborhood, claiming the man was knocking on random doors. When the police confronted the suspect, he said he was just waiting on a friend.
As police searched his car, they found “several weapons and a lot of ammunition as well as tannerite, an ingredient that could be used to create a pipe bomb,” the newspaper wrote. The suspect’s car had Indiana plates. However, Santa Monica Police spokesman Saul Rodriguez stressed that while they did found weapons in the man’s car, the police “were not aware of what the suspect’s intentions were at this point.”
The parade was not cancelled, but officials have beefed up security and they are looking for the suspect’s friend. The suspect name’s has yet to be released to the media.
Clearly, this incident has the LGBT community on high alert, especially given the horrendous mass murder that happened at a gay club in Orlando on Sunday morning. Fifty people were murdered and 53 injured, making it the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history.
Authorities do not believe that this incident and the shooting in Orlando are connected.
SOURCE: LA Times | PHOTO CREDIT: Getty
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