Booby-Trapped Gun Mailed to Deputy

Los Angeles County sheriff’s officials are investigating whether street gang members or other deputies mailed a booby-trapped gun to a sergeant, according to Sheriff Sherman Block.

The Long Beach Press-Telegram said the investigation centers around the sheriff’s Lynwood station, where allegations have surfaced about deputies forming a clique with gang-like characters they call the “Vikings” and harassing superiors.

Block told the newspaper that detectives were focusing on two theories--that either street gang members or other deputies were responsible for the incident this fall.

Sheriff’s sources said that in late September the Lynwood sergeant received a box in the mail that contained a small caliber handgun rigged so it would go off in the face of whoever opened the package.

The sergeant was unpopular with Lynwood deputies and, additionally, had been involved in the shooting of a gang member, the sources said. The sergeant, who had received mailed death threats, grew suspicious and called the bomb squad.