Mystery surrounds man accused of chainsawing trees across downtown L.A.
One: Who did it? Two: What was the motive for such a bizarre crime?
'I have 35 years on the Los Angeles Police Department, and I have never seen anyone go and attack trees, especially around the time of Earth Day,' LAPD Cmdr. Lillian Carranza said.
On Wednesday, authorities announced that Samuel Patrick Groft, 45, had been arrested on suspicion of felony vandalism,and that they had connected him to 13 downed trees in five locations across the city. He was arrested on Earth Day, which was Tuesday.
He has an extensive criminal history, according to law enforcement sources, and once posted on social media that he believed his mind was being controlled by "electronic weapons."
Groft could not be reached for comment.
The felling of at least 13 trees on public sidewalks over more than a week has sparked outrage across the city, with some suggesting the wanton vandalism marked a new low for a city that has been struggling with manifold social and economic crises.
On social media sites, some indignant residents speculated that the acts were committed by unscrupulous developers who "wanted the trees gone" or were orchestrated secretly by the City of Los Angeles.
When surveillance images of a bald and goateed suspect dressed in black and pedaling a BMX-style bicycle, toting a dark backpack and large duffel bag, were released by the Los Angeles Police Department, many wondered what could move a person to attack city trees.
Groft, who law enforcement sources say bears a tattoo of the Roman numerals 666 on the back of his head, was taken into custody at a homeless encampment on Sunset Boulevard and Custer Avenue in Chinatown.
Groft was in possession of a chainsaw when he was arrested, police said Wednesday. He has previously been convicted of and served time for assault with a deadly weapon, driving under the influence, felony vandalism and a hit-and-run, according to court records. LAPD officials declined to comment further on his criminal history, but detectives said they were aware of him from prior cases.
One person who spends time in the neighborhood where Groft was taken into custody told The Times they had seen the suspect using a chainsaw on a metal pole.
'There was sparks and s— flying everywhere,' said the person, who asked to remain anonymous for safety reasons. 'That ain't normal.'
In 2023, Groft told a student journalist from Cal State L.A. that he'd been living on the streets for several years, ever since he had completed a mental health court diversion program, which provides residential mental health treatment to people facing jail time as an alternative to incarceration.
LAPD officials declined to comment on whether Groft was currently dealing with mental illness or substance abuse. They also declined to share any possible motive for the tree cuttings.
A LinkedIn account that bears Groft's name and photograph includes a signed 2017 letter that states, "I have been constantly followed slandered and even mind controlled through electronic weapons which are trying to lure me into a massive setup of some sort."
Groft is accused of severing the first tree trunk on April 13 and the most recent on Tuesday, the day he was arrested, police said. Detectives said they are still confirming the exact dates and times of all the incidents, but said some occurred in broad daylight and others in the middle of the night.
One tree was cut in the 500 block of North Broadway; three were sawed near 1550 W. 8th St.; five were downed near 350 S. Grand Ave.; three were cut near 717 W. Temple St.; and one was taken out near 300 Treadwell St., according to LAPD officials. Additional locations of fallen trees are still being investigated.
Many people who live near the affected trees brought up not only their safety concerns after the incident, but also the environmental loss of important shade, stormwater management and habitat.
L.A. Mayor Karen Bass said in a statement that the situation is 'truly beyond comprehension' and that public works crews are working to replace the trees as soon as possible.
Trees provide many benefits to urban areas. They clean the air, replenish the groundwater, capture stormwater runoff, slow the deterioration of streets and have been shown to reduce crime.
Times staff writers Clara Harter and David Zahniser contributed to this report.
Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week.
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
CBS News
9 hours ago
- CBS News
Person killed, good Samaritan injured during late-night Los Angeles shooting
A heated confrontation became tragic late Saturday night when a shooting left one person dead and another injured in Los Angeles, according to authorities. The Los Angeles Police Department said the incident took place in the 1300 block of St. Andrews Place in the Harvard Heights neighborhood around 10:35 p.m. The suspect and victim were engaged in a verbal dispute when the victim called out for help as a vehicle was passing by. Police said a good Samaritan exited the vehicle to provide help, and the suspect then drew a firearm and fired shots at both of them. The victim, who was originally in a dispute with the suspect, was pronounced dead at a local hospital later that night. They've yet to be identified by authorities. The good Samaritan was transported to a local hospital, where they remain in stable condition. According to the LAPD, the suspect remains at large as of Sunday. No additional details were immediatley made available.
Los Angeles Times
17 hours ago
- Los Angeles Times
How an LAPD internal affairs detective became known as ‘The Grim Reaper'
In a police department with a long tradition of colorful nicknames — from 'Jigsaw John' to 'Captain Hollywood' — LAPD Sgt. Joseph Lloyd stands out. 'The Grim Reaper.' At least that's what some on the force have taken to calling the veteran Internal Affairs detective, usually out of earshot. According to officers who have found themselves under investigation by Lloyd, he seems to relish the moniker and takes pleasure in ending careers, even if it means twisting facts and ignoring evidence. But Lloyd's backers maintain his dogged pursuit of the truth is why he has been entrusted with some of the department's most politically sensitive and potentially embarrassing cases. Lloyd, 52, declined to comment. But The Times spoke to more than half a dozen current or former police officials who either worked alongside him or fell under his scrutiny. During the near decade that he's been in Internal Affairs, Lloyd has investigated cops of all ranks. When a since-retired LAPD officer was suspected of running guns across the Mexican border, the department turned to Lloyd to bust him. In 2020, when it came out that members of the elite Metropolitan Division were falsely labeling civilians as gang members in a police database, Lloyd was tapped to help unravel the mess. And when a San Fernando Valley anti-gang squad was accused in 2023 of covering up shakedowns of motorists, in swooped the Reaper again. Recently he was assigned to a department task force looking into allegations of excessive force by police against activists who oppose the government's immigration crackdown. At the LAPD, as in most big-city police departments across the country, Internal Affairs investigators tend to be viewed with suspicion and contempt by their colleagues. They usually try to operate in relative anonymity. Not Lloyd. The 24-year LAPD veteran has inadvertently become the face of a pitched debate over the LAPD's long-maligned disciplinary system. The union that represents most officers has long complained that well-connected senior leaders get favorable treatment. Others counter that rank-and-file cops who commit misconduct are routinely let off the hook. A recent study commissioned by Chief Jim McDonnell found that perceived unfairness in internal investigations is a 'serious point of contention' among officers that has contributed to low morale. McDonnell has said he wants to speed up investigations and better screen complaints, but efforts by past chiefs and the City Council to overhaul the system have repeatedly stalled. Sarah Dunster, 40, was a sergeant working in the LAPD's Hollywood division in 2021 when she learned she was under investigation for allegedly mishandling a complaint against one of her officers, who was accused of groping a woman he arrested. Dunster said she remembers being interviewed by Lloyd, whose questions seemed designed to trip her up and catch her in a lie, rather than aimed at hearing her account of what happened, she said. Some of her responses never made it into Lloyd's report, she said. 'He wanted to fire me,' she said. Dunster was terminated over the incident, but she appealed and last week a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge granted a reprieve that allows her to potentially get her job back. Others who have worked with Lloyd say he is regarded as a savvy investigator who is unfairly being vilified for discipline decisions that are ultimately made by the chief of police. A supervisor who oversaw Lloyd at Internal Affairs — and requested anonymity because they are not authorized to speak to the media — described him as smart, meticulous and 'a bulldog.' 'Joe just goes where the facts lead him and he doesn't have an issue asking the hard questions,' the supervisor said. On more than one occasion, the supervisor added, Internal Affairs received complaints from senior department officials who thought that Lloyd didn't show them enough deference during interrogations. Other supporters point to his willingness to take on controversial cases to hold officers accountable, even while facing character attacks from his colleagues, their attorneys and the powerful Los Angeles Police Protective League. Officers have sniped about his burly build, tendency to smile during interviews and other eccentricities. He wears two watches — one on each wrist, a habit he has been heard saying he picked up moonlighting as a high school lacrosse referee. But he has also been criticized as rigid and uncompromising, seeming to fixate only on details that point to an officer's guilt. People he has grilled say that when he doesn't get the answer he's looking for, he has a Columbo-esque tendency to ask the same question in different ways in an attempt to elicit something incriminating. And instead of asking officers to clarify any discrepancies in their statements, Lloyd automatically assumes they are lying, some critics said. Mario Munoz, a former LAPD Internal Affairs lieutenant who opened a boutique firm that assists officers fighting employment and disciplinary cases, recently released a scathing 60-page report questioning what he called a series of troubling lapses in the LAPD's 2023 investigation of the Mission gang unit. The report name-drops Lloyd several times. The department accused several Mission officers of stealing brass knuckles and other items from motorists in the San Fernando Valley, and attempting to hide their actions from their supervisors by switching off their body-worn cameras. Munoz said he received calls from officers who said Lloyd had violated their due process rights, which potentially opens the city up to liability. Several have since lodged complaints against Lloyd with the department. He alleged Lloyd ultimately singled out several 'scapegoats to shield higher-level leadership from scrutiny.' Until he retired from the LAPD in 2014, Munoz worked as both an investigator and an auditor who reviewed landmark internal investigations into the beating of Black motorist Rodney King and the Rampart gang scandal in which officers were accused of robbing people and planting evidence, among other crimes. Munoz now echoes a complaint from current officers that Internal Affairs in general, and Lloyd in particular, operate to protect the department's image at all costs. 'He's the guy that they choose because he doesn't question management,' Munoz said of Lloyd. In the Mission case, Munoz pointed to inconsistent outcomes for two captains who oversaw the police division accused of wrongdoing: One was transferred and later promoted, while another is fighting for his job amid accusations that he failed to rein in his officers. Two other supervisors — Lt. Mark Garza and Sgt. Jorge 'George' Gonzalez — were accused by the department of creating a 'working environment that resulted in the creation of a police gang,' according to an internal LAPD report. Both Garza and Gonzalez have sued the city, alleging that even though they reported the wrongdoing as soon as they became aware of it, they were instead punished by the LAPD after the scandal became public. According to Munoz's report and interviews with department sources, Lloyd was almost single-handedly responsible for breaking the Mission case open. It began with a complaint in late December 2022 made by a motorist who said he was pulled over and searched without reason in a neighboring patrol area. Lloyd learned that the officers involved had a pattern of not documenting traffic stops — exploiting loopholes in the department's auditing system for dashboard and body cameras. The more Lloyd dug, the more instances he uncovered of these so-called 'ghost stops.' A few months later, undercover Internal Affairs detectives began tailing the two involved officers — something that Garza and Gonzalez both claimed they were kept in the dark about. As of last month, four officers involved had been fired and another four had pending disciplinary hearings where their jobs hung in the balance. Three others resigned before the department could take action. The alleged ringleader, Officer Alan Carrillo, faces charges of theft and 'altering, planting or concealing evidence.' Court records show he was recently offered pretrial diversion by L.A. County prosecutors, which could spare him jail but require him to stop working in law enforcement. Carrillo has pleaded not guilty to the charges. In an interview with The Times, Gonzalez — the sergeant who is facing termination — recalled a moment during a recorded interrogation that he found so troubling he contacted the police union director Jamie McBride, to express concern. McBride, he said, went to Lloyd's boss, then-deputy chief Michael Rimkunas, seeking Lloyd's removal from Internal Affairs. The move failed. Lloyd kept his job. Rimkunas confirmed the exchange with the police union leader in an interview with The Times. He said that while he couldn't discuss Lloyd specifically due to state personnel privacy laws, in general the department assigns higher-profile Internal Affairs cases to detectives with a proven track record. Gonzalez, though, can't shake the feeling that Lloyd crossed the line in trying to crack him during an interrogation. He said that at one point while Lloyd was asking questions, the detective casually flipped over his phone, which had been sitting on the table. On the back of the protective case, Gonzalez said, was a grim reaper sticker. 'And then as he turned it he looked at me as if to get a reaction from me,' Gonzalez said. 'It was definitely a way of trying to intimidate me for sure.'
CBS News
2 days ago
- CBS News
LAPD in pursuit of a stolen vehicle in North Hollywood
The Los Angeles Police Department is in pursuit of a stolen vehicle near North Hollywood.
