Hollywood star says LAPD took guns without warrant

November 15, 2015 in News by D

Dan Bilzerian.

– The Washington Times – Thursday, November 12, 2015

Instagram sensation Dan Bilzerian received some bad news when he returned to his West Hollywood mansion after a September break-in — several of his guns were gone.

But it wasn’t burglars who had taken the firearms, it was the Los Angeles Police Department.

For two months after the break-in, Mr. Bilzerian, a professional poker player and gun rights champion, says police inexplicably continued to keep the nine firearms under lock and key without a warrant. When the eight pistols and one rifle were returned to their owner about a week ago, all the ammunition for the firearms was missing, raising questions about the LAPD’s protocol for seizing firearms.


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“All of my ammunition and the magazines were gone. And they couldn’t explain what happened to the magazines, but that ammo couldn’t be released with a firearm and that I’d have to schedule a separate three-hour visit for the ammo,” Mr. Bilzerian told The Washington Times. “If they are gonna take the guns and make me wait for three hours at the police station, they should at the very least return what came with them.”

The break-in occurred in the early morning hours of Sept. 5, a weekend when Mr. Bilzerian was out of town, according to the police report.

The perpetrators disabled security cameras outside the home before breaking a glass window to gain entry. Once inside, the intruders attempted to break into a closet where Mr. Bilzerian kept a collection of firearms, but the steel-reinforced room withstood their attempts.

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Meanwhile an alarm for a security system to the house was triggered, summoning police. The burglars escaped before police arrived, but once on scene, the officers turned their attention to the firearms they believed were in the home.

It’s unclear exactly why police forced their way inside the closet where the guns were stored. Officers asked Mr. Bilzerian’s assistant and security guard for permission to break into the room but the aides declined, but the officers accessed it anyway, Mr. Bilzerian said.

“They broke into our closet and took them after we were burglarized,” said Mr. Bilzerian’s assistant Jeremy Guymon. “It’s not like we were doing anything wrong.”

The responding officers confiscated nine firearms supposedly under the premise that they wanted to secure the home in case the burglars attempted a second break-in, Mr. Bilzerian said. But strangely, the officers left behind an arsenal of shotguns and a high-powered semiautomatic carbine rifle like the ones used by special operations troops.

“The officers told my assistant that they took the handguns because they didn’t want the suspects to come back and get them on a second break-in even though they were unsuccessful at opening the steel reinforced door the first time,” Mr. Bilzerian said. “Essentially they were ‘trying to protect my property and people’s safety.’ This is hard to grasp, when they left my $21,000 FN SCAR17 with thermal optic and shotguns unsecured in that same room.”

After two months shuffling between prosecutors’ and police offices to retrieve the firearms, Mr. Guymon said it seems unlikely at this point thatMr. Bilzerian will get his ammunition back.

Los Angeles police spokeswoman Officer Norma Eisenman said Wednesday the department was unable to immediately comment on the allegations made by Mr. Bilzerian or the LAPD’s protocol for securing stored guns at the scene of a break-in.

Attorney Joseph A. Silvoso III, a California gun law expert at the law firm Michel & Associates, said he has seen numerous incidents in which police responding to a crime scene confiscate guns without a warrant, either talking victims into permitting the seizure or declaring it was necessary for public welfare or personal safety.

“I can speak to California and there is a mindset, either it is cultural or politically pushed by the leadership, where we are seeing law enforcement responding to a scene where a crime has been committed, then asking for the location of any weapons and the ability to seize the firearms comes up,” he said.

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