Sunset Boulevard Mass Shooting Likely Prevented By Community: LAPD

HOLLYWOOD, CA — Drivers on the Hollywood (101) Freeway, pedestrians on Sunset Boulevard, people in the Capitol Records building, and dog owners playing with their pets at a Hollywood dog park were all unwittingly in range of a man who aimed high-powered rifles from the windows of his 18th-story apartment onto the city below, investigators said Thursday.

If not for the man's neighbors in the Lumina Hollywood building at Sunset Boulevard and Gordon Street and the building's security guard, Los Angeles could have suffered a mass shooting like the one that claimed more than 60 lives in Las Vegas in 2017, Los Angeles Police Department officials said.

"There is a high chance that the officers, and obviously, security staff and the people who called, prevented a mass shooting from happening," Los Angeles Police Department Lt. Leonid Tsap told reporters.

Police, however, did not say whether they found additional evidence of a mass shooting plot.

An apartment security guard had approached Braxton Johnson, 25, at his apartment Tuesday when neighbors complained that he was making threats, police said. That's when Johnson threatened the security guard, according to the Los Angeles Police Department.

Officers returned with a search warrant and discovered an arsenal of high-powered rifles, handguns, ammunition and Bullet-proof vests, according to the LAPD.

"Based on the location of the weapons, the type of weapons and what I have been told by investigators, that these officers and I absolutely believe they prevented a mass shooting type of event," Capt. Raymond Valois toldNBC Los Angeles. "I think it was simple, a matter of time before something may have occurred that this suspect may have started shooting out of his apartment and cause considerable mayhem, something similar to what happened in Las Vegas."

Police indicated that at least one of the rifles was aimed at a window of the man's apartment in the direction of a park below. According to Valois, Johnson's rifle could reach targets half-mile away. The building sits about 1,200 feet from the 101 freeway not far from the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Johnson was in possession of weaponry "with the ability to inflict a lot of damage to a lot of people," Tsap said.

A neighbor two doors down from Johnson told KNX News’ Jon Baird, he talked about taking sniper shots from the high-rise.

“He came into my apartment and said, ‘You have a better view than I even have so maybe this would be the ideal,’” the neighbor said, noting that the suspect clarified that it would be a good place to shoot from."I thought it was bs talk, like locker room talk," he continued.

Johnson was booked late Tuesday night on suspicion of criminal threats. Jail records show he remains jailed in lieu of $500,000 bail.

Police said they traced Johnson's criminal history to at least one other state, where an additional investigation into an unspecified violent crime was ongoing. The other state or states were not disclosed.

City News Service contributed to this report.