2 charged with stealing weapons from house of Rep. Karen Bass

Two males have been formally charged by the Los Angeles County District Legal professional’s Workplace for allegedly breaking into the house of U.S. Congresswoman and Los Angeles mayoral candidate Karen Bass and stealing two firearms.

District Legal professional George Gascón introduced that Patricio Munoz, 42, and Juan Espinoza, 24, have been every charged with one felony rely of first-degree residential housebreaking and two counts of grand theft of a firearm.

The 2 have been arraigned Friday on the Foltz Legal Justice Heart in downtown Los Angeles.

The pair are accused of breaking into Bass’s house in Baldwin Vista final Friday and stealing two handguns which Bass mentioned have been “safely and securely saved” in a lockbox. No different valuables have been stolen from her house, she mentioned.

“It’s unnerving and, sadly, it’s one thing that far too many Angelenos have confronted,” Bass mentioned in a information launch shortly after the housebreaking occurred.

Gascón mentioned his workplace will “maintain accountable” these answerable for breaking into the houses and stealing the firearms of law-abiding gun homeowners.

“Everybody deserves to be protected of their house. Residential housebreaking is a violation of that security in essentially the most basic approach,” Gascón mentioned.

The DA mentioned gun thefts have been on the rise because the starting of the COVID-19 pandemic and lots of of these stolen firearms have been utilized in violent crimes throughout the county.

The case stays beneath investigation by the Los Angeles Police Division.

Bass, who at the moment serves in Congress representing California’s thirty seventh congressional district, is one among two remaining candidates vying for the mayor’s workplace.

She’s dealing with developer Rick Caruso within the upcoming November General Election.