Four more trespassing arrests made at graffitied downtown skyscraper
Taggers were caught vandalizing the high-rise project in this drone video from Feb. 1, 2024. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
For the second time in a week, the Los Angeles Police Department announced multiple arrests at a highly visible and graffitied skyscraper in downtown Los Angeles.
Personnel from the department’s Metropolitan division assisted patrol officers in arresting four people on Tuesday afternoon.
For the record:
3:04 p.m. Feb. 8, 2024An earlier version of this story misidentified the abandoned downtown skyscraper targeted by taggers as the Oceanview Plaza development. It is the Oceanwide Plaza development.
Police conducted a search around 1 p.m. of the unfinished Oceanwide Plaza development, which was the focus of news stories last week after 27 floors of the $1-billion skyscraper were heavily tagged.
Two people were arrested in connection with spray painting about 27 floors of an unfinished skyscraper in downtown Los Angeles, authorities said.
As a result of the search, police arrested 29-year-old Sebastian Zoro-Gutierrez, 30-year-old Andrew Rios, 35-year-old Mauro Aguilar and 44-year-old Jessie Carreon for trespassing.
Zoro-Gutierrez was cited and released just before midnight, according to county records, while Rios, Aguilar and Carreon were cited and let go around 2 a.m. Wednesday.
Zoro-Gutierrez is due back in court on Feb. 27, while the remaining trio will appear the following day.
Gunshots rang out just before midnight Friday at a skyscraper recently covered in graffiti near Crypto.com Arena in downtown L.A., authorities said.
The arrests come a week after police announced the trespassing arrests of two Los Angeles men — Roberto Perez, 25, and Daniel Ramirez, 35 — in the early-morning hours of Jan. 30.
Those arrests were made in response to a vandalism call.
Officers also cited a driver alleged to have participated in spray painting vandalism on Thursday.
Police are also investigating a report of shots being fired Friday at the Oceanwide Plaza.
The colorful graffiti that adorns an abandoned skyscraper in downtown L.A. is, depending on who you ask, petty vandalism that plagues the city or vibrant street art that enriches.
Recently posted video shows the daring lengths some taggers have employed to add their graffiti to the building’s exterior.
In the video, one tagger can be seen hugging a vertical post at least a dozen stories above the ground, their back turned toward the LA Live entertainment center across Figueroa Street, then shuffling gingerly across a shallow ledge to reach their canvas.
Construction on the Oceanwide Plaza, a condominium, hotel and retail complex financed by a Chinese developer, paused in 2019.
Beijing-based Oceanwide Holdings vowed to restart the construction later that year, but never did as money dried up.
The project, which also faces Crypto.com Arena, remains unfinished.
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