Simone WilsonYesterday was a record-insane news day, even for Hollywood:
After the LAPD received reports of shots fired on Sunset Boulevard around 3:30 p.m., officers ran in circles for a spell before stumbling into the loaded apartment of 42-year-old Robert Page, where they say they found a sawed-off shotgun and a stick of dynamite, among other weapons (such as, um, paintball gear). So the bomb squad was called in — only to discover that the dynamite was a fake and that Page was some kind of X-treme Hollywood prop master.
Oh, and then a KTLA newscopter crash-landed in a nearby parking lot.
The dynamite may have been a dud. But in the end, LAPD spokesman Richard French says investigators believe Page was firing a very real shotgun off the balcony of his third-floor apartment.
Although initial reports indicated he was aiming at a group of construction workers, one officer told the KTLA news team (who had apparently recovered from that epic spiral out of the sky) that “he was just drunk, and shot some leaves in some trees.”
French tells L.A. Weekly that the suspect has since been jailed under $250,000 bail on suspicion of “firing at an inhabited dwelling” — a felony crime.
Now, this morning, more emerges on the middle-aged raver dude who Los Angeles watched stumble, handcuffed, to the cop car last night in his mohawk and rainbow shorts.
Neighbors know him as Robert Page-Roberts, reports NBC4, and he's “a prop master in the entertainment industry.”
An IMDB profile for a man with the same name lists him as “special effects coordinator” for 2012 war movie Reign, as well as “special effects technician” for video short Born Free.
“He's a big guy,” says LAPD spokesman French. “He's about 6'6″ and 210 pounds.”
Credit: Robert Page-Roberts via Facebook
On his stranger-than-fiction Facebook profile, Page-Roberts poses with giant military weapons, a slingshot, a few different guns and some crazy zombie motorcycle straight out of Halloweentown.
We're not really sure what's real and what's fake. Just last Saturday, though, the suspect posted photos of himself at a gun show, including one (top right) with the caption: “Who would let me loose with an AK47? Love the gunshow.”
More from the bizarre scene on Sunset last night, via NBC4:
Police say the suspect did not resist arrest. Two of his friends, a man and woman, were also taken into custody and released hours later.
“Innocent people got arrested for this,” the woman said.
A woman claiming to be the suspect's ex-girlfriend, who wished to remain anonymous, says he once held a fake gun to her head.
During the hours-long ordeal, a two-block stretch of Sunset was cordoned off and two nearby elementary schools were reportedly placed on lockdown.
Also, the entire population of the suspect's Hollywood apartment building (see map below) was evacuated onto the street, no doubt adding some fire-drill-esque confusion to the chaos.
[@simone_electra / swilson@laweekly.com / @LAWeeklyNews]
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