Gunshots reportedly fired at pro-Trump caravan in LA; car tire blown out; another car's window smashed
Hundreds of supporters of President Donald Trump staged a car rally along Ventura Boulevard in Los Angeles on Sunday morning when a motorist heard what sounded like gunshots as she drove past the caravan and soon noticed her flat tire, KNBC-TV reported, citing police.
Police told the station the tire was damaged by a projectile, possibly a bullet or bullet fragment, and a witness pointed police to a possible shooter in a nearby apartment building.
What happened next?
With that, SWAT was called to the apartment complex in the 20600 block of Ventura Boulevard in the Woodland Hills neighborhood, and the building was locked down with three suspected shooters barricaded inside, KNBC said.
But after a standoff of several hours with Ventura Boulevard shut down and nearby buildings evacuated, SWAT entered the apartment and found no one home, the station said. Police continued to investigate the incident, KNBC noted.
What's the background?
"We assembled peacefully," rally participant Linda Zukovski told the station.
But Zukovski added to KNBC that she recorded video prior to the rally start of men on an apartment balcony arguing with rally participants — and that bottles and even a firework were thrown at Trump supporters.
"Nobody was throwing stuff back at them, nobody was screaming obscenities at them." she told the station. "It was all like kind of mellow until it became violent."
Zukovski also told KNBC the rear window of a car right in front of her in the caravan was smashed by a rock or frozen water bottle.
She added to the station that "as we were driving by we heard the gunshot."
An unidentified woman told KNBC that "the people that were in the caravan and all the Trump supporters were pretty taunting."
The station said there were no reports of any injuries.
Anything else?
The incident occurred just hours after a vehicle caravan of Trump supporters clashed with Antifa rioters in Portland, after which a man associated with Patriot Prayer was fatally shot. Video from the shooting suggests the victim was targeted.
After the deadly shooting, a crowd of leftists gathered on a Portland street and cheered as a woman hollered through a megaphone that "the person who died was a Patriot Prayer person. He was a f***ing Nazi. Our community held its own and took out the trash. I'm not going to shed any tears over a Nazi."
