LOS ANGELES, CA – Authorities evacuated a Santa Monica home on Sunday after discovering two improvised booby traps rigged with live shotgun shells, police said Monday. A 61-year-old man is under investigation and could face felony charges for assembling and maintaining the devices.
Officers from the Santa Monica Police Department responded to reports of gunfire at a residence on the 3300 block of Exposition Boulevard. A neighbor told police she had also heard a male voice coming from the garage, threatening to kill someone.
Inside the home, officers found two elderly women and a man, identified as Arthur Tabuchi, all of whom were unharmed. A search of the garage revealed a shotgun shell mounted on a workbench, rigged with a spring-loaded firing pin connected to the garage door via a wire, according to a police statement.
The device was designed to discharge the shell toward anyone opening the garage door. Officers evacuated the home and summoned the Los Angeles County Bomb Squad to dismantle the booby traps.
A second rigged shotgun shell was discovered near a pedestrian gate on the north side of the property. This shell, modified to act as a sound diversion device, had been recently discharged and was likely the source of the initial gunfire report, police said.
Bomb squad technicians safely disabled the device in the garage and confirmed no other live traps were present. However, a search warrant for the residence yielded illegally obtained ammunition.
Tabuchi was taken to a hospital for a mental health evaluation, police said. Investigators plan to file felony charges for assembling and maintaining the booby traps with the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office.
The police urged anyone with information related to the case to contact investigators via email or phone.
Authorities emphasized the seriousness of the case, noting the potentially deadly consequences of the improvised devices. No injuries were reported in the incident.
