Hundreds of people were evacuated from the Park West Bicycle Casino and Hotel Thursday after security reported receiving a threatening phone call.
Police cars and BearCat tactical vehicles were lined up outside the Bell Gardens casino as law enforcement responded to the call around 4 p.m. that later turned out to be a hoax.
“The casino received a threat, an active threat of an individual requesting $50K or else this individual was going to open fire on the casino floor. The individual also mentioned that he had an associate who was willing to detonate a bomb,” said Bell Gardens Mayor Miguel De La Rosa.
NewsChopper4 was over the casino that showed people being evacuated from the building and surrounding areas.
“We still have to go through our due diligence, which is public safety, making sure that there is nothing in there,” said Bell Gardens Police Chief Paul Camacho.
It took law enforcement about five hours to clear the casino of any threat.
“All of a sudden you see everyone get up and tell everyone to evacuate. They didn’t tell us why they didn’t where we were going so a lot of confusion at first,” said Norman Garcia, who was evacuated from the casino. “They allowed us to go to the cashier, which is kind of weird because that means it wasn’t that urgent, because they let us cash out and get our money.”
Eastern Avenue was shut down in both directions between Florence Avenue and Clara Street due to police activity. The Bell Gardens Police Department urged the public to stay away from the area until further notice.
Similar swatting calls occurred in other parts of LA County. The tower at LAX says it received a similar threat Thursday that turned out be nothing. Van Nuys Airport was also hit with a swatting call on Wednesday.