Crime & Safety

Malibu Pickaxe Rampage Suspect Arrested

A search for a man suspected of taking a pickaxe to several front doors, cameras and parked vehicles in Malibu ended in arrest.

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Security camera footage shows a man investigators believe to be 55-year-old Thomas Aaron Brothers vandalizing front doors and vehicles in Malibu with a pickaxe over the course of several days last week, according to the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department.
Security camera footage shows a man investigators believe to be 55-year-old Thomas Aaron Brothers vandalizing front doors and vehicles in Malibu with a pickaxe over the course of several days last week, according to the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department. (Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department)

MALIBU, CA – Sheriff's deputies arrested a 55-year-old man suspected of numerous acts of vandalism across Malibu over the course of a three-day rampage.

Thomas Aaron Brothers is suspected of taking a pickaxe to numerous vehicles along Pacific Coast Highway as well as residential front doors and cameras, terrorizing Malibu residents over the course of several days. Investigators were able to identify him through security footage capturing the vandalism, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department's Malibu/Lost Hills station.

Security camera footage shows a man investigators believe to be 55-year-old Thomas Aaron Brothers vandalizing front doors and vehicles in Malibu with a pickaxe over the course of several days last week, according to the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department. (Photo courtesy of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department).

Following several days of searching for Brothers, a tip came in on Friday that he was seen exiting an MTA bus at Ocean and Colorado boulevards in Santa Monica. Sheriff's deputies and police in Santa Monica Police Department canvassed the area, but Brothers was not immediately located.

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Several hours later, deputies returned to Santa Monica to search for him and located him near the California Incline. He fled that location and was later found in a Santa Monica Beach restroom at about 11:45 p.m. Friday.

(Photo courtesy of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department)

Brothers was taken into custody without incident and booked at the sheriff's Malibu/Lost Hills station, according to the sheriff's Inmate Information Center. He was being held in lieu of $20,000 bail.

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City News Service contributed to this report.

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