A motorist with more than a dozen guns — two of them loaded — and nearly 1,000 rounds of ammunition in his pickup truck was arrested at a vehicle checkpoint as he entered Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), authorities said.
Phillip Dominguez of Orange was booked on suspicion of felony transportation of an assault rifle, but airport police said on Friday it appears he did not intend any harm and was there to pick up someone.
“He just made a very bad decision and should not have been carrying those weapons,” airport police Sergeant Jim Holcomb said.
The weapons — which included 10 handguns, five rifles and an antique black-powder musket — were in containers in the back of the 47-year-old man’s truck, which was stopped by airport police officers at a major entrance to the passenger terminals area, airport spokeswoman Nancy Castles said.
Two of the weapons, a revolver and the musket, were loaded, Holcomb said.
Dominguez’s wife, Sue Dominguez, said her husband planned to go target shooting at an outdoor range with a friend whom he was picking up at the airport. She said she found out about his arrest from a TV news report and they later spoke on the phone.
She described him as a law-abiding citizen who treats his weapons with care.
“The guns are always double-locked. He has all the paperwork and everything. He’s a fanatic about making it all legal,” she said.
“He didn’t lie to the police and he said they were polite and respectful to him,” she said.
Police initially reported that 37 weapons were found in the truck. Castles said that count was an estimate based on the number of containers in the truck, which did not all contain weapons.
Airport police routinely set up vehicle checkpoints at roads leading into the airport’s central roads.
The FBI, the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and Los Angeles Police Department were investigating whether the weapons were properly registered.
REBUILDING: A researcher said that it might seem counterintuitive to start talking about reconstruction amid the war with Russia, but it is ‘actually an urgent priority’ Italy is hosting the fourth annual conference on rebuilding Ukraine even as Russia escalates its war, inviting political and business leaders to Rome to promote public-private partnerships on defense, mining, energy and other projects as uncertainty grows about the US’ commitment to Kyiv’s defense. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy were opening the meeting yesterday, which gets under way as Russia accelerated its aerial and ground attacks against Ukraine with another night of pounding missile and drone attacks on Kyiv. Italian organizers said that 100 official delegations were attending, as were 40 international organizations and development banks. There are
TARIFF ACTION: The US embassy said that the ‘political persecution’ against former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro disrespects the democratic traditions of the nation The US and Brazil on Wednesday escalated their row over US President Donald Trump’s support for former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro, with Washington slapping a 50 percent tariff on one of its main steel suppliers. Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva threatened to reciprocate. Trump has criticized the prosecution of Bolsonaro, who is on trial for allegedly plotting to cling on to power after losing 2022 elections to Lula. Brasilia on Wednesday summoned Washington’s top envoy to the country to explain an embassy statement describing Bolsonaro as a victim of “political persecution” — echoing Trump’s description of the treatment of Bolsonaro as
The military is to begin conscripting civilians next year, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet said yesterday, citing rising tensions with Thailand as the reason for activating a long-dormant mandatory enlistment law. The Cambodian parliament in 2006 approved a law that would require all Cambodians aged 18 to 30 to serve in the military for 18 months, although it has never been enforced. Relations with Thailand have been tense since May, when a long-standing territorial dispute boiled over into cross-border clashes, killing one Cambodian soldier. “This episode of confrontation is a lesson for us and is an opportunity for us to review, assess and
Pakistani police yesterday said a father shot dead his daughter after she refused to delete her TikTok account. In the Muslim-majority country, women can be subjected to violence by family members for not following strict rules on how to behave in public, including in online spaces. “The girl’s father had asked her to delete her TikTok account. On refusal, he killed her,” a police spokesperson said. Investigators said the father killed his 16-year-old daughter on Tuesday “for honor,” the police report said. The man was subsequently arrested. The girl’s family initially tried to “portray the murder as a suicide” said police in
RSS