Culver City Residents Upset After LAPD Officer's Stray Bullet Struck Their Apartment

CULVER CITY (CBSLA.com) – A Culver City couple is upset after a Los Angeles police officer fired a stray bullet that struck their apartment, narrowly missing them and their young child last week.

"Six to eight inches in a different direction, and it would have been in our bed," said a tenant, whose apartment was struck by the stray bullet.

It struck a wall of his apartment while he, his girlfriend and their toddler daughter were sleeping.

The man, who does not want his identity revealed, said he is outraged and even more upset about the fact that the shot was fired from a gun registered to an off-duty L.A. police officer.

"The people that we think they're here to protect us. We never would have imagined that's where the mischief was coming from," the man said.

Just before 5 a.m. Friday, he said he woke up to what sounded like a gunshot. He expected to hear sirens and commotion. But everything was quiet. So he went back to sleep.

Later that morning, when his girlfriend opened the door to go to work, she found a loaded pistol in the hallway and alerted neighbors at The Meadows Apartment Homes on Green Valley Circle.

The tenant said: "The neighbor was totally shocked also. But she was the first one that pointed out to us. She said hey: 'There's a bullet hole that's going into your apartment.' "

He and those neighbors later learned that the gun was registered to an off-duty L.A. police officer.

The Culver City Police Department, which is handling the case, will not reveal the officer's identity.  And neither will the LAPD, which said it has launched an internal investigation.

In an email to the tenants, the building's management said that same morning, three fire alarms were also pulled. The statement read:

"We can't reveal any details about the resident allegedly involved, due to privacy laws. As to the cause, we can't know. Having said that, it seems to have been an isolated incident of someone acting out."

The tenant said he has had enough. "When your home is violated like that, you know, it only takes one time for us. We're leaving."