COULD FORMER COPS OF DISBANDED COMPTON PD HAVE STOLEN THE GUNS?

31 police handguns missing from Compton City Hall vault

City News Service
March 27, 2018

COMPTON — Authorities today announced a $10,000 reward for information that helps them find out who took 31 firearms from a vault in the old Compton City Hall building, where they were being stored following the disbanding nearly 20 years ago of the city’s police department.

Investigators believe the firearms were taken some time between March 6 and Aug. 31, 2017, according to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

Compton city officials had maintained the former Compton Police Department’s inventory of firearms in its vault in the old City Hall building at 600 N. Alameda St. after the police department was dismantled in 2000, the ATF reported.

Police functions in the city were taken over by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, which conducted an inventory of the firearms in March 2017.

“Compton’s City Council … determined the LASD should take control of the firearms until a final adjudication was made on whether the Compton Police Department would be restored,” an AFT statement said. “The LASD transferred the firearms to its vault on Aug. 31, 2017 and discovered 23 Beretta .40-caliber pistols and eight Glock .40-caliber pistols were missing from the inventory.”

The ongoing investigation is being conducted by the ATF.