A series of military exercises taking place in empty buildings across the Southland are scaring residents and rattling neighbors as the sound of gunfire rings out in the dark and troops descend from helicopters.<\/p>\n
Multiple nights this week, the sounds of simulated urban warfare have erupted in the middle of the night in parts of sleepy Pasadena and Long Beach and in an empty mall in the San Gabriel Valley.<\/p>\n
As some residents went to bed, video showed a helicopter thundering across the sky as soldiers jumped onto the roof of an empty hospital in the middle of a tree-lined residential neighborhood in Pasadena Wednesday night.<\/p>\n
Officials have said they\u2019ve been given little notice and had no say on where or when the exercises would take place.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople are trying to sleep,\u201d said Rick Cole, a Pasadena City Council member in a video posted on Instagram late Wednesday as the training continued in the background. \u201cThis is going to go on for a while and good luck to the people who have to get up and go to work tomorrow morning.\u201d<\/p>\n
The operation, at the vacant St. Luke Medical Center in the 2600 block of East Washington Boulevard, included simulated gunfire, flash grenades and a military helicopter that hovered over the building.<\/p>\n
Police were told by the military about the training and asked officers to provide security around the abandoned hospital months ago, a city spokesperson told The Times. But city officials were not given details about the operation, and were not able to notify the public until hours before the training began. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s troubling and disappointing the federal government would not provide the leadership of this city information to share with our constituents, particularly because the same neighborhood was significantly impacted by the Eaton fire,\u201d Pasadena Mayor Victor Gordo said.<\/p>\n
Asked what the city knew before the drills, Gordo said police had been informed of activity but not the scope and significance. He noted that the drills were taking place at locations scheduled to host Olympic events.<\/p>\n
A U.S. military officer familiar with the exercises told The Times the training involved \u201chighly trained soldiers who operated in challenging situations and terrains and want real-life facilities.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey don\u2019t train on the same cinder-block training facilities as other units,\u201d said the officer, who was not authorized to discuss the matter with the media.<\/p>\n
Despite the notification to the city\u2019s Police Department, elected city officials said they received no notice about the training until just a few hours before it was set to begin. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt was very generic information,\u201d read a statement from the city. \u201cMinimal details were shared with the Police Department. The City notified the public a few hours before the exercise was to begin. The City had no control on the timing of the exercise or specific details. Our priority was the safety of the residents and vehicle traffic in the immediate area.\u201d<\/p>\n
A notice was sent out to residents at 5:30 p.m., and elected council members were notified via text six minutes prior. <\/p>\n
\u201cHow does this happen, and how come we didn\u2019t hear about it sooner?\u201d Cole asked. \u201cThis was a war game in a residential neighborhood recently devastated by catastrophic fire that took place in a weeknight, in the middle of the night.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cole said he\u2019s inquired why the City Council and the public were not notified earlier about the operation, which occurred at multiple Southern California cities this week.<\/p>\n
The soldiers training in Pasadena, the officer said, were highly specialized operators who do training in Southern California and arrived at Los Alamitos. It is not uncommon for the units to train at defunct malls or abandoned businesses in Los Angeles County.<\/p>\n
An official said the helicopter seen in the regional training was from the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, or SOAR.<\/p>\n
Cole recorded video of the training just outside the hospital and the sounds of simulated gunfire can be heard in the background of the post on Instagram.<\/a> <\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re in the middle of what is normally a quiet residential neighborhood,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n In another post just before 2 a.m. Thursday, Cole states the simulated gunfire<\/a> and grenades went on for about 45 minutes. Cole states that part of the training was supposed to take place at about midnight, but was pushed back because of \u201ctechnical difficulties.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI really don\u2019t understand why the U.S. military needs to come into a residential neighborhood without notice and be setting off artificial flash bangs at midnight when people are trying to get sleep,\u201d he said on the post. \u201cI understand why people are outraged.\u201d<\/p>\n Lisa Derderian, a spokesperson for the city of Pasadena, confirmed city officials received a number of calls inquiring about the training, including some residents who asked for supervisors and a police lieutenant to answer for the event. <\/p>\n City officials in Long Beach and City of Industry also warned residents<\/a> there about training exercises in their neighborhoods Thursday night, stating that noise could continue until 2 a.m. <\/p>\n Videos posted on Facebook from Long Beach<\/a> also showed flashes and bangs in neighborhoods, and the loud rotor of a helicopter overhead. One video showed a helicopter landing in a dark parking lot, while uniformed soldiers rushed the aircraft and were lifted out. <\/p>\n A police vehicle, with lights flashing, could be seen parked nearby.<\/p>\n Irvine police issued a similar alert<\/a> Wednesday night, warning about loud noise because of the training that was expected between 8 p.m. and midnight.<\/p>\n Cole said he was concerned not just with the lack of notice, but whether the training was part of an intimidation tactic from the federal government to California cities. <\/p>\n \u201cIs this part of some pattern of, you know, either training for domestic warfare or intimidating a domestic audience?\u201d Cole asked. \u201cFrankly, I don\u2019t have a good answer for that.\u201d<\/p>\n In September of last year, while addressing a rare gathering of top U.S. military leaders in Quantico, Va., President Trump said he was interested in using U.S. cities as training grounds for the military.<\/p>\n During his address, he criticized Democratic leaders in U.S. cities for their response to immigration protests. The comments came about three months after the president deployed National Guard troops to Los Angeles<\/a> as large crowds protested widespread, aggressive immigration raids in the city. <\/p>\n \u201cAnd I told [Secretary of Defense] Pete [Hegseth], we should use some of these dangerous cities as training grounds for our military,\u201d Trump said in the speech. <\/p>\n Pentagon officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n