Compton gun heist remains a mystery
COMPTON — The guns were kept in a 1920s-era vault in a municipal building on North Alameda Street.
Compton officials struggled for months to say where they came from, and now where a load of them have gone.
The city dismantled its police force 18 years ago. Were they left over from the old department? Were they sidearms removed four years ago from code enforcement officers who had taken to arming themselves? Were they purchased as part of a failed push to revive the police force in 2010?
Those were the questions last year when a new city manager, Cecil Rhambo Jr., learned about the stash in the old City Hall building from a code enforcement officer. He ordered them to be inventoried and turned over to the Los Angeles County Sheriff ’s Department.
Deputies counted 198 weapons in March. When they went back to retrieve the guns in August, there were 167.
Now Rhambo, the Sheriff ’s Department and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are asking: Who stole 31 of them?
Whoever it was made off with 23 Beretta .40-caliber pistols and eight Glock .40-caliber pistols.
Sheriff’s Department and Compton city officials notified the ATF, which opened an investigation in September and is offering a $10,000 reward for information leading to an arrest and conviction.
“None of them have shown up at crime scenes,” said Ginger Colbrun, an ATF spokeswoman in L.A. “That’s in part why we decided to put out the reward.”
Colbrun said agents have the serial numbers of the missing weapons to aid with identifying them once they are located. A ballistics review revealed that none of the remaining weapons are known to have been used in a crime, according to a sheriff ’s spokeswoman.
City insiders question whether the guns were stashed in expectation that the police force would be reinstated. The department’s closure was acrimonious and never fully accepted, with opponents claiming the decision was payback for police officers trying to recall then-Mayor Omar Bradley. Proponents argued that contracting with the Sheriff’s Department would be more affordable and effective in fighting crime.