A gun once registered to Christopher Dorner — the notorious former L.A. cop who killed four people including two law officers — was found in the L.A. Airbnb of a pair of alleged “crime tourists,” federal prosecutors say.
The two South American nationals are accused of stealing a $1-million watch at gunpoint last week on the patio of the Beverly Wilshire hotel.
Did they use Dorner’s gun to carry out the alleged crime?
Assistant U.S. Atty. Jena MacCabe would not confirm the weapon was used in the alleged robbery, KCAL reported, but an affidavit says it was the only weapon found in connection with the arrests.
“We’re still trying to figure it out,” MacCabe said.
Prosecutors say the suspects held up the victim in front of his wife and twin 5-year-old daughters at the high-end Beverly Hills hotel. One held a gun while the other took off the man’s luxury watch, a Patek Philippe, then fled in a car with a stolen plate, the affidavit says.
Street cameras near the Beverly Wilshire captured the Aug. 7 armed robbery of a man in front of his family.
(U.S. District Court)
Jamer Mauricio Sepulveda Salazar, 21, of Columbia, is charged with two felony counts related to the armed robbery. Nineteen-year-old Jesus Eduardo Padron Rojas, of Venezuela, is charged with felony conspiracy to commit robbery.
Sepulveda said the crew had been doing surveillance for two weeks in an effort to steal a Patek Phillipe watch, the complaint says, and both men admitted their involvement in stealing a $30,000 Rolex in Beverly Hills two days before the $1-million watch theft.
Investigators found a handgun in Padron’s pillowcase at the suspects’ Airbnb on Browning Boulevard in Los Angeles. The gun was registered to Dorner, a former officer who targeted LAPD officers who he felt had wronged him.
Over nine days in 2013, Dorner killed four people — two police officers, the daughter of a former LAPD captain and her fiancé — and injured three others. He died in a cabin in Big Bear that went up in flames after a shootout with authorities.
MacCabe said investigators were “trying to figure out how this gun from so long ago, somehow came into their possession and was tied up in this violent armed robbery series.”