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quaint

(3,651 posts)
Tue Aug 31, 2021, 07:44 AM Aug 2021

Follow-up: L.A. man whose fireworks were faultily detonated by LAPD, pleads guilty

KTLA
The L.A. Police Department had seized some 5,000 pounds of fireworks from 26-year-old Arturo Ceja III before the explosion, but investigators later uncovered a total of about 32,000 pounds — or 16 tons – on the property, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in L.A. said in a news release.

LAPD’s botched detonation injured 17 people — including nine Los Angeles police officers and a federal agent — and left a path of destruction spanning several blocks near the epicenter in the 700 block of East 27th Street, with more than 30 homes destroyed.

LAPD has chalked up the devastating failure to an “apparent miscalculation” of the weight of fireworks placed in a chamber meant to contain the explosion, which was designed to take a maximum capacity of 25 pounds. Investigators later determined more than 42 pounds had been put in.

Ceja pleaded guilty Monday to a single count of transportation of explosives without a license.

Just a miscalculation, nothing to see here.
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Follow-up: L.A. man whose fireworks were faultily detonated by LAPD, pleads guilty (Original Post) quaint Aug 2021 OP
A Wile E. Coyote miscalculation. Sneederbunk Aug 2021 #1
Perfect quaint Aug 2021 #2
25 families remain displaced two months since blast quaint Sep 2021 #3

quaint

(3,651 posts)
3. 25 families remain displaced two months since blast
Thu Sep 2, 2021, 07:34 AM
Sep 2021
KABC
Two months since LAPD's botched fireworks detonation rocked a South Los Angeles neighborhood, frustrated neighbors say not enough is being done to fix the damage done to their homes.

"We're here to expose the cowardness, the shameful act of Curren Price that is misleading the public at large about what is the situation and the conditions of the residents. People are facing eviction, homelessness," said Adrian Alvarez, a community organizer with the group Union del Barrio. "They're having a hard time surviving with eating, with the mental impact of the explosion."

On Wednesday, Price introduced a motion to develop a comprehensive recovery plan, which calls for $5 million to go toward services, including structural improvements. Price admits the neighborhood is far from where it needs to be.

A report outlining the recovery plan is expected by the end of September. Some of the $5 million would come out of LAPD's budget.

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