Here’s the video of the suspect stalking the #LAPD officer. Spread it around to raise awareness. pic.twitter.com/rLa8tckcWc
— Drug Enforcement Cop (@dopecop) October 5, 2015
A man suspected of holding a gun while videotaping a Los Angeles Police Department officer and posting the images online was taken into custody, police said.
Police have not released the man’s name, but he was identified in news reports by his stage name of Klever, who was in a 1990s Chicano rap outfit called Brownside.
It was not immediately clear where he was taken into custody nor the basis for the booking.
Police have said the video, which was initially viewed as a threat to officers, was made in an effort to revive interest in Brownside.
A secondary suspect in the case was arrested in Downey over the weekend, LAPD Chief Charlie Beck said.
Police have not identified 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 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.”
Robbery Homicide Division 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, one 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.”
On Instagram, Klever claimed the gun was a prop and that the police were trying to frame him.
The president of the main LAPD union criticized both the video and Beck’s reaction to it.
“While Chief Beck made a point of alerting officers to the dangers posed by the video early on, upon further investigation, he all but dismissed the violent, anti-police nature of the images,” Los Angeles Police Protective League President Craig Lally said
“Analyzing the intentions of the video does not change the fact that a threat on officers’ lives was made. All such threats must be taken seriously. We think Chief Beck’s first reaction was right: officer safety must be our first priority, and a threat of this nature, whatever the reason, should not be downplayed.”
The statement went on to decry “the prevalence of the anti-police narrative being communicated by some in our society.”
The second suspect was taken into custody Wednesday.
— City News Service