Nightlife patrons at the Abbey Food and Bar in West Hollywood had a gun scare after West Hollywood Sheriffs stormed the popular bar in search of an alleged armed man inside. 

Deputies from the West Hollywood Station launched an investigation after a security guard called alleging a man had a gun. Deputies evacuated The Abbey and swarmed the club but did not find him. Authorities said surveillance video captured images of the suspect in the bar with the weapon.

“We do have our EPT team, which is our entertainment policing team — they’re always doing patrol checks at all the businesses on Sunset and Santa Monica, so that’s why we got here within seconds,” LASD spokesperson Sgt. Joana Warren told KABC 7 Eyewitness News.

Media footage of the incident shows multiple units and a swarm of deputies in protective gear surround the bar and they cleared the location on Robertson Boulevard.

A number of other businesses in the area were informed about the incident when it happened and they were given a description of the man.

The scare is very close to the deadly mass shooting at an LGBTQ nightclub, Club Q, in Colorado Springs, Colorado in which at least five people have been killed and dozens more were injured in the incident which occurred on the eve of Transgender Day of Remembrance.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issued a terror threat bulletin November 30, warning that domestic extremists have posted online praise for the fatal shooting at an LGBTQ nightclub in Colorado earlier this month. and have called for copycat attacks.

In its bulletin, DHS officials noted that several recent attacks, plots, and threats of violence demonstrate the continued dynamic and complex nature of the threat environment in the United States:

“Some domestic violent extremists who have conducted attacks have cited previous attacks and attackers as inspiration. Following the late November shooting at an LGBTQI+ bar in Colorado Springs, Colorado—which remains under investigation—we have observed actors on forums known to post racially or ethnically motivated violent extremist content praising the alleged attacker. Similarly, some domestic violent extremists in the United States praised an October 2022 shooting at a LGBTQI+ bar in Slovakia and encouraged additional violence. The attacker in Slovakia posted a manifesto online espousing white supremacist beliefs and his admiration for prior attackers, including some within the United States,” DHS warned.

The City of West Hollywood is working with the West Hollywood Sheriff’s Station of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department and the Block by Block Security Ambassadors program to expand patrols in the City’s Rainbow District.

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