Vigilante's Search For Bodies In Notorious LA Lake Halted By Officials: Reports

LOS ANGELES, CA — Authorities shut down a local businessman's attempt to search the lake at MacArthur Park for bodies and guns this week due to a lack of proper permits, according to reports.

John Alle on Monday planned to deploy a remotely operated sonar vehicle into the lake as part of an effort to "investigate longstanding rumors and documented incidents of deceased individuals in the lake, potentially recovering remains to bring closure to families and increase awareness about community safety in the Westlake/MacArthur Park area," according to a release from Alle's Safe Cities organization.

Alle claims that families of missing people, some of whom were last seen near the park, had reached out to him for help.

“There is evidence down there for crimes,” Alle told KTLA. “We’ll identify it with photography and the city will have to extract it.”

But park rangers stopped the search before the equipment was deployed, citing a lack of proper permits. Authorities issued a parking citation to the search team, Alle told Fox 11.

Councilwoman Eunisses Hernandez, who represents the MacArthur Park area, denied claims made by Alle that she interfered with his plan.

"Organizers publicized an unpermitted operation on public parkland," Hernandez's office said in a statement. "City departments, including LAPD and Recreation and Parks, notified the organizers in advance that they did not have the appropriate permits or clearances and that the operation could not proceed. Despite that outreach, the organizers chose to move forward, and this morning LAPD and Park Rangers reiterated that the unpermitted operation could not go forward."

The city's Chief Park Ranger Joe Losorelli told KTLA his main concern was about possible damage to underwater piping, including a pump system that feeds the park's large fountain. He also took issue with Alle's vigilantism.

“If there’s a loved one who’s looking for their family members or someone who’s deceased, they can go to the police station and they can report that,” Losorelli told KTLA. “[Alle] should not be taking that into his own hands.”

Alle is the cofounder of the Santa Monica Coalition. The organization's website describes it as a project of the Safe Cities organization, which aims to address "roaming transient addicts, housing, local government intervention, government-funded non-profit agencies, and how these groups issues are affecting residents, families, businesses and their employees."

Alle made headlines last year when he announced his organization would buy homeless people one-way flights and bus rides out of Los Angeles, ABC 7 reported.

MacArthur Park has recently become a focus for both conservative activists and the Trump administration.

The park's dense Westlake neighborhood has a large population of Mexican and Central American immigrants and has been referred to as the "Ellis Island of the West Coast."

Long a community hub where immigrants sell wares and gather for picnics and sports, the area around the park also has a reputation for crime, gang activity and being in a state of severe disrepair and neglect. Last year, vendors were pushed out due to safety concerns following a shooting.

The park was the site of one of the most visible immigration enforcement operations in Los Angeles last year, when over 100 members of the California National Guard and federal agents in Humvees, on horseback and in other vehicles descended on the park in July.