Police weren’t laughing Tuesday over an online video that initially looked like people in a nearby vehicle were threatening LAPD officers.
While the video turned out to be only an effort by a has-been rap group trying to make a comeback, arrests were underway.
LAPD Chief Charlie Beck Tuesday announced the arrest of a “secondary suspect” and the expected imminent surrender of a “primary” suspect in the posting of the video on social media that was initially viewed as a threat to police.
Officers arrested the secondary suspect in Downey over the weekend, and served a warrant Tuesday morning at the residence of the primary suspect, who remains at large, Beck said.
“Right now Robbery-Homicide Division is actively looking for him,” Beck told the Police Commission this morning. “His attorney is in contact with Robbery-Homicide Division. We’re trying to negotiate that surrender at this point.”
He did not identify either suspect.
The video posted on Instagram showed a man holding what appears to be a loaded revolver while sitting in a parked car behind an LAPD patrol car.
In a statement that was released after Beck’s announcement, the LAPD said detectives “identified the vehicle and three suspects who were inside filming.”
“The investigation revealed that the film was made by members of an early 1990s rap group no longer in fashion,” the police statement said. “The film was made and posted on social media to ignite a comeback by the rap group.” RHD detectives “have determined that the video in question was made for entertainment purposes only and was not a credible threat to police officers,” the statement says. “The criminal investigation of the suspect, however, will continue.”
According to the LAPD, the suspect in custody has a prior firearm conviction.
“A felony warrant for his arrest for carrying a firearm in a vehicle with a prior — accompanied by a search warrant — was obtained by investigators and was executed by SWAT in the city of Downey,” the statement said.
In the video, an officer can be seen getting out of the patrol vehicle, as someone in the video says, “(expletive) the police.”
“It’s completely frightening,” an unidentified woman described as the wife of an officer told CBS2, with only her silhouette shown on camera.
“And I know that a lot of the wives are scared,” the woman said. “(The officers) just want to do their job, and yet all this hatred is coming at them. And it’s just becoming more and more violent.”