Man charged in break-in of LA mayor’s home

LOS ANGELES (CN) — A man who police believe broke into Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass' home faces felony charges of residential burglary and vandalism, officials announced on Tuesday.

Ephraim Hunter, 29, was arrested Sunday after the break-in. Authorities say Hunter jumped a fence and smashed a window in the back of the Getty House, the mayor's official residence in Hancock Park, at around 6:40 a.m., went inside and made it all the way to the second floor. According to the Los Angeles Times, Mayor Bass "was forced to hide in a safe area designed to protect against intruders."

At a press conference, LA County District Attorney George Gascón said that Bass' daughter, son-in-law and baby grandchild were also in the home at the time.

"We believe he was targeting the mayor," Gascón said. "There were actions while he was inside the property that are consistent with the fact that he knew that this was the mayor’s home, and that he was looking for her." Gascón declined to elaborate further, citing the ongoing nature of the investigation. He would not say why Hunter might have been targeting the mayor.

Gascón said Hunter cut himself on the glass window he broke and left bloodstains throughout the house.

Interim Police Chief Dominic Choi told reporters on Tuesday morning that the break-in occurred during a short gap in LAPD security, as shifts were changing.

Hunter, who was arraigned on Tuesday, is currently being held on $100,000 bail. If convicted, he faces up to 13 years in prison. Hunter had served several years in a Massachusetts state prison after being convicted of assault with a deadly weapon in 2015.

This was the second time Bass has had her home broken into. In 2022, when she was a U.S. congresswoman and running for mayor, two men broke into her home in Baldwin Vista and stole a pair of handguns. The men were sentenced to two and three years in prison, respectively.

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