Suspect arrested in break-in at Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass’s home, police say

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Police in Los Angeles arrested a suspect following a break-in at the home of Mayor Karen Bass early Sunday, officials said.

The suspect was arrested shortly after smashing a window to get inside of Getty House while it was occupied, the Los Angeles Police Department said in a statement on social media. The home is the mayor’s official residence, on Irving Boulevard west of downtown.

“Mayor Bass and her family were not injured and are safe,” her office said in a statement. “The Mayor is grateful to LAPD for responding and arresting the suspect.”

Bass told reporters Monday, “I am fine. My family is fine.”

The LAPD identified the suspect in the burglary investigation as 29-year-old Ephraim Matthew Hunter, a city resident. He was being held on $100,000 bail, a Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department website said.

Public records do not show if Hunter has a lawyer who can speak on his behalf. The Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office said in an email that LAPD investigators have been in contact with prosecutors to review the investigation.

The Los Angeles Times, citing public records, said Hunter was convicted of assault with a deadly weapon following a 2015 attack on a man in Massachusetts and served seven years in state prison.

The newspaper said Josephine Duah, who identified herself as Hunter’s mother, said she spoke with her son Monday from jail and he told her he allegedly entered the property because he believed he was being pursued by someone who wanted to harm him and did not know who owned the residence. She said her son planned to enter a drug treatment clinic on Monday but never made it.

Bass served as a Democratic member of Congress from 2011 until her election as the city’s 43rd mayor in 2022. The former state Assembly leader is the first woman and second Black person to hold the post, after former Mayor Tom Bradley, who held the position from 1973 to 1993.

The arrest recalled the October 2022 break-in at former U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s San Francisco home, in which her husband, Paul Pelosi, was attacked with a hammer. A jury last year found David DePape guilty of attempted kidnapping of a federal official and assault on the immediate family member of a federal official.

The attack raised questions about the security provided for members of Congress and their families. The U.S. Capitol Police had a camera at the residence but it was not being monitored at the time of the attack because Nancy Pelosi was not home.