Suspect in break-in at Los Angeles mayor’s official residence charged with burglary, vandalism
LOS ANGELES — A 29-year-old suspect in a burglary at the home of Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass last weekend was charged Tuesday with burglary and vandalism, and authorities said they believed he targeted the mayor but did not know Why.
Ephraim Matthew Hunter, a Los Angeles resident, was charged with one felony count of first-degree residential burglary and one misdemeanor count of vandalism, Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascón said. Hunter shattered a back glass door early Sunday morning to gain entry to the Getty House, the mayor’s official residence near downtown, and was cut by glass and left bloodstains throughout the house, Gascón said.
The mayor, her daughter, son-in-law and grandchild were in the home at the time.
“We believe he targeted the mayor,” Gascón said, without providing specific details about how investigators came to that conclusion. “We assume he knew it was her residence.”
“We are happy that there were no injuries and that the mayor is doing well,” Gascón added.
Hunter is being held on $100,000 bail.
Bass told reporters on Monday: “I’m doing well. My family is good.”
The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office, which is representing Hunter, said in a statement that “our office will ensure that Mr. Hunter receives a fair and robust defense and a full investigation into the circumstances that led to the charges against him.”
Bass’ office and the Los Angeles Police Department did not respond to questions about security protocols at the home.
Interim Police Chief Dominic Choi told reporters on Tuesday that Hunter, who reached the second floor of the house, broke in at a time when there were no security officers on the premises. Hunter arrived at the house on a short break during a shift change, which was fixed to create an overlap of shifts, Choi said.
According to the Los Angeles Times, Hunter had been convicted of assault with a deadly weapon after a 2015 attack on a man in Massachusetts and had served seven years in state prison.
The newspaper said Josephine Duah, who identified herself as Hunter’s mother, said she spoke to her son from jail on Monday, and he told her he allegedly entered the property because he thought he was being chased by someone who wanted to harm him and did not know it. who owned the house. She said her son planned to go to a drug treatment clinic on Monday, but it never worked out.
Bass served as a Democratic member of Congress from 2011 until her election as the city’s 43rd mayor in 2022. The former state Assembly leader is the first woman and second Black person to hold the post, following former Mayor Tom Bradley, who held the position held from 1973 to 1993.
The arrest recalls the October 2022 burglary at the home of former US Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi in San Francisco, during which her husband, Paul Pelosi, was attacked with a hammer. Last year, a jury found David DePape guilty of attempted kidnapping of a federal official and assault on a federal official’s immediate family member.
The attack raised questions about the security provided to members of Congress and their families. The US Capitol Police had a camera at the home. But there was no surveillance at the time of the attack because Nancy Pelosi was not home.