Authorities are investigating how a gun registered to an infamous Los Angeles police officer ended up at the Airbnb of two men recently charged in the robbery of a $1m watch in Beverly Hills.
Investigators discovered the weapon earlier this month after they connected the Airbnb to a vehicle involved in another Beverly Hills theft, authorities said. The weapon was registered to Christopher Dorner, a former Los Angeles police department (LAPD) officer who killed the daughter of a former LAPD captain and her fiance as well as two others over nine days in 2013 before dying in a dramatic standoff with law enforcement. Dorner had felt he had been wrongly fired by LAPD, and accused the department of racism and corruption.
Federal prosecutors said on Tuesday that one of the robbery suspects, a 19-year-old Venezuelan citizen named Jesus Eduardo Padron Rojas had told police he had handled the gun and left it in the Airbnb.
Authorities say Padron and another suspect in the robberies, Jamer Mauricio Sepulveda Salazar, a 21-year-old Colombian citizen, are part of a “crime tourism” group that had been staying at the rental. The gun was in a pillowcase on a bed where a witness told police Padron had been sleeping, according to an affidavit.
Sepulveda and Padron were stopped in the vehicle Tuesday and charged with felonies related to armed robbery.
The men told investigators that they were involved in the armed robbery of a $30,000 Rolex on 5 August in Beverly Hills and, two days later, in one with the watch with an estimated worth of more than $1m, according to the affidavit.
One suspect pointed a gun at a man sitting with his wife and two daughters on the Beverly Wilshire Hotel’s restaurant patio while the other removed the silver Patek Philippe watch from his wrist, the affidavit said. The crew had been surveilling for the luxury watch for two weeks, Sepulveda told police.
Sepulveda and Padron are both in custody and made their initial court appearances Tuesday. They will be arraigned next month in federal court in downtown Los Angeles.
