Man with loaded gun detained outside of Joe Biden event in LA


A man with a loaded handgun inside his car was arrested Wednesday outside of a Los Angeles business where Vice President Joe Biden was scheduled to speak.
The Los Angeles Police Department says that Larry Ira Estrin, 62, was stopped at a vehicle checkpoint in North Hollywood when a police dog screening cars alerted its handler that it detected a firearm. The loaded gun was found under the passenger seat, and Estrin was booked on a misdemeanor charge of possession of a loaded firearm and held in lieu of $35,000 bail, said Sgt. Kyle Kirkman of the LAPD's North Hollywood division.
Estrin is not believed to be a political protester, police said, and he could have just forgotten that the weapon was in his vehicle. Biden was in town to discuss living wages and enhanced overtime protections for workers at Bobrick Washroom Equipment, the White House said. Security for Biden during this trip, the Los Angeles Times reports, was even tighter than usual.
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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
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