Los Angeles suspect who 'targeted' mayor's house had troubled past, dad says

The suspect who broke into Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass' home was addicted to heroin, according to his father.

Los Angeles County authorities arrested and charged Ephraim Matthew Hunter, 29, with burglary with people present and vandalism after he allegedly broke into the mayor's Windsor Square home through a window during a security shift change on Sunday morning.

"He's never done anything like that, but … drugs make you do anything, and he did drugs, so that's the problem," Hunter's father, Donald Hunter, told Fox News Digital.

Ephraim was previously convicted of a violent attack and robbery involving a hammer in Norfolk, Massachusetts, in 2015, according to the Norfolk District Attorney's Office. After he was released from prison, Ephraim moved to Los Angeles to live with his brother and turn his life around, Donald said.

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"He had just come out of prison and … wanted to make a change. He came out [to Los Angeles] and was working, and then he started to do drugs, and his brother said he didn't want him doing drugs at the house, so he ended up on the streets," the elder Hunter said.

The Los Angeles Police Department initially responded to Bass' home, known as Getty House, around 6:40 a.m. Sunday. The LAPD said during a Tuesday press conference that the suspect hopped a wall surrounding Bass' home as night security guards swapped shifts with morning security guards, leading officials to believe that he "targeted" the mayor.

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"[Ephraim] jumped over the fence quickly, and was able to break in through the back of the house. And to my understanding, this happened so quickly that even if somebody had been there, he probably still would have been able to access the inside of the residence," interim LAPD Chief Dominic Choi said.

District Attorney George Gascón said Tuesday that prosecutors believe Emphraim Hunter was targeting Bass, who was at home with her daughter, her son-in-law and her grandchild at the time of the break-in.

"We believe that he was targeting the mayor, but this is an ongoing investigation," Gascón said, adding that "there were actions while he was inside the property that are consistent with the fact that he knew this was the Mayor's home, and that he was looking for her."

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It's the second time Bass has been the victim of a home burglary in two years. In 2022, during her campaign, two suspects stole firearms from the mayor's Baldwin Vista home.

Former L.A. resident Kevin Dalton described the crime against the mayor as "the ultimate telltale sign of what's happening with Los Angeles, not only with crime but with criminals themselves."

"Crime has gotten so out of control and criminals are so brazen now. They're not only breaking into homes in some of the most expensive parts of Los Angeles. They're literally breaking into the mayor's house. That sounds like an analogy you would make for a bad town," Dalton said.

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Dalton also expressed his belief that the mayor is using the break-in as an "opportunity" after officials reported that she was "targeted."

"The first break-in was a tremendous opportunity… during her campaign, when two people broke into her house, left laptops, cash and other valuables that were out, found two guns that were locked up in a safe, and only stole that," Dalton said. "So, clearly, they're going to take advantage."

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Dalton added that "people that need the help the most" in Los Angeles "aren't getting it," despite the city's efforts to spend millions of dollars to house approximately 40,000 people experiencing homelessness. Last week, the Los Angeles City Council agreed to a federal judge's request to pay an outside firm $2.2 million to audit the city's programs to combat homelessness.

The mayor's Inside Safe program moved more than 21,000 homeless residents into temporary shelters, according to The Associated Press.

Dalton said he wants Bass "to succeed" but feels like more needs to be done to prevent random crime from victimizing innocent residents, noting a seemingly random and brutal attack on two women in L.A.'s Venice Canals neighborhood on April 6 that left both victims hospitalized with severe injuries.

"It's the random, it's the violent … you can't see it coming. That's the absolute scariest type of violence," he said.

Fox News' Kristine Parks and Anders Hagstrom contributed to this report.