West Hollywood, California (Saturday, November 29, 2008) - Sheriff’s deputies locked down West Hollywood’s City Center last night between 10 pm and 3 am this morning while they sought a gunman suspected of attempted robbery. 
Hundreds of residents were denied access to or egress from an area roughly 15 square blocks large centering on WeHo City Hall, running from the Sunset Strip south to Waring Avenue between Harper Avenue and Kings Road. WeHo News - West Hollywood’s ONLY Newspaper, ONLY ONLINE! |
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Hundreds of residents were denied access to or egress from an area roughly 15 square blocks large centering on WeHo City Hall, running from the Sunset Strip south to Waring Avenue between Harper Avenue and Kings Road.
Patrick Beller, who lives on Sweetzer inside that perimeter, told WeHo News that he was kept away from his home for over five hours at the corner of Sunset and Sweetzer.
“Seriously not OK,” he said. “I bet they never found the gunman.”
The gunman remains at large, although his alleged accomplices, a man and woman, were arrested on the scene, according to Los Angeles Sheriff Sgt. Arthur Famble.
“They set up a perimeter to find a suspect in an attempted armed robbery,” he told WeHo News.
He said that a valet working near the intersection of Hilldale and Sunset Boulevard on the Strip called the Sheriff to report an attempted, but failed, armed robbery around 10 pm on Friday night.
He gave a description of the get away car, which was spotted by patrol officers a few blocks from the scene.
West Hollywood City Hall. Photo by WeHo News - West Hollywood’s ONLY Newspaper, ONLY ONLINE! |
“They stopped the car,” said Sgt. Famble, “and when they pulled over, the suspect ran. The two who were in the car were arrested on suspicion of attempted robbery.”
He identified the woman as Avriella Edmondson and the man as Christopher Perez. Their ages or places of residence were not immediately available.
No firearms were found in the car, leading authorities to believe that the escaped suspect is armed.
Residents were told little other than that a search was taking place.
Mr. Beller complained in an E mail to WeHo News, sent at 3:20 am, “I just got home after waiting for FIVE hours to be able to drive down my street.
“The police would not let anyone walk to their homes. Twenty people just at Sweetzer and Santa Monica Boulevard. At 2:45 am. Not okay. And that was just our section of the perimeter.”
The entrance to Kings Road Park at Romaine and Kings Road in WeHo. Photo by WeHo News - West Hollywood’s ONLY Newspaper, ONLY ONLINE! |
Jimmy Palmieri, a city advisory board member living inside the perimeter tried to leave his home, to no avail.
“We weren't even allowed to leave our apartment buildings,” he said. “They kept amplifying there is a felon on the run, everyone must go inside.”
Regardless of the danger represented by a hunted gunman on the loose in a rabbit’s warren of apartments, Mr. Beller felt accommodations should have been made for people’s comfort.
“If they were that concerned about us, then they should have escorted us individually to our homes,” he wrote.
“Instead we wait five hours for their search and then they just drive away. Unfair.”
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