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Pasadena man pleads guilty to machine gun possession
Pasadena Independent Aug 18, 2023
| Photo courtesy of Sora Shimazaki/Pexels
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A Pasadena man who brandished a loaded ghost gun near a South Los Angeles high school last year pleaded guilty Friday to a federal charge of possessing machine gun parts.
Isaac Loftus, 26, faces up to 10 years behind bars when he is sentenced on Dec. 8, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
As part of his sentence, Loftus will be ordered to serve a period of supervised release to include participation in an in-patient mental health treatment program, his plea agreement states.
Prosecutors say law enforcement received a call around lunchtime on Nov. 22 about an armed person wearing a tactical vest and cargo pants in the vicinity of Thomas Jefferson High School. A witness said the man later identified as Loftus had pointed a firearm at two passing motorists, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Loftus, who at first refused to obey multiple commands to stop and attempted to walk away from officers, eventually complied and was detained and later arrested, prosecutors said.
Loftus’ plea agreement, filed in Los Angeles federal court, states that law enforcement removed a 9 mm handgun with no serial number, commonly known as a ghost gun, that contained one round in the chamber and six rounds in the magazine, from a holster on Loftus’ front right hip area. The holster was decorated with symbols commonly associated with the Boogaloo extremist movement, according to a sworn affidavit filed with the criminal complaint.
The affidavit states that Loftus told the officers who arrested him that he was named “Yahweh” — Hebrew for God — and they would “be dead” if they continued to question him. After he was arrested and in custody, he spontaneously told officers that “judgment day has been delayed,” the affidavit signed by FBI Special Agent Geoffrey Colvin says.
Loftus is prohibited from possessing firearms as a result of having been declared a danger to himself and others in 2016, the document says.
The Boogaloos are a loosely organized anti-government extremist movement whose adherents believe there will be a civil war or uprising against the United States government following perceived incursions on constitutional rights, including the Second Amendment’s right to bear arms and other perceived government overreach, prosecutors said.
On Loftus’ person, officers also recovered two heavy-duty zip ties, a tactical plate carrier, a pocketknife with a three-inch blade, a black knife with a four-inch fixed blade and two key fobs for a Honda Clarity that had been reported stolen from a car dealership earlier in the day. The Honda had also been involved in a hit-and-run accident that same day, located about five blocks from where Loftus was arrested, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Law enforcement searched the Honda and found a loaded 9 mm ghost gun in the glove compartment and a toolbox containing the upper and lower receiver of a nearly 12-inch AR-style rifle, a drop-in device designed for converting a semi-automatic firearm into a fully automatic machine gun, dozens of rounds of various calibers of ammunition, roughly 23 magazines and a silencer, according to the affidavit.
During a search of Loftus’ residence, law enforcement found firearms and firearms cases, dozens of additional auto sears, and a large U.S. flag with symbols consistent with the Boogaloo ideology, court papers show.
Prosecutors say that in December 2016, Loftus was placed on a mental health hold under California Welfare Institutions Code and was deemed a danger to himself or others or gravely disabled. Loftus incurred a lifetime prohibition on firearms as a result.
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