Earlier this summer, Los Angeles Lakers guard Kentavious Caldwell-Pope was part of an extremely scary incident as he was robbed at gunpoint while talking in his driveway with friends. Reportedly, three men approached Caldwell-Pope and his friends with guns drawn at around 4 AM and made away with around $150,000 worth of jewelry and other items.
But this wasn’t the only incident involving a high-profile individual, as Fashion Nova CEO Richard Saghian was also involved in an incident that turned into a deadly shootout. Much like the Caldwell-Pope robbery, three individuals approached two people who were with Saghian as they returned home from a night out, but things escalated when his security team returned and opened fire on the attempted robbers.
With the similarities between the two events, police are now questioning whether they are connected in some way, according to TMZ:
TMZ’s learned police are investigating the 2 June incidents — along with multiple others that have been reported in L.A. lately — to determine if they’re part of a larger crime ring.
We’re told in both cases and other similar cases, it’s believed the victims were followed home after a night out and once they arrived … they were approached by the suspects and robbed of their valuables at gunpoint.
With both attempted robberies following similar paths, it makes sense that the authorities would take this step to ensure that this isn’t a part of a larger operation targeting high-profile people. The fact that these are armed robberies likely increases the sense of urgency from law enforcement to crack down as soon as possible.
In the case of Caldwell-Pope, no one was injured in the incident, but that does nothing for the mental anguish one could suffer after being held at gunpoint. That wasn’t the case for the other one, as one of the suspects was killed in the shootout, and another was critically injured.
Residents must be able to feel safe, and if there is a gang of robbers targeting people in this way, there is no chance of that happening.
Kentavious Caldwell-Pope praises Lakers for fighting through adversity
Unfortunately for Caldwell-Pope, that scary incident came on the heels of a quicker than expected end to the Lakers season. But the Lakers guard had nothing but praise for his teammates fighting through all of the obstacles they faced this season.
“No matter what, we never gave up,” the veteran guard noted. “We fought through adversity, whatever it was, injuries, or just losing a couple games in a row. I feel like we laid it all out this season. No matter the timetable that we had to recovery I feel like we left it all out and gave it our best.”
