Vanilla Ice, Bodyguard Are Charged With Carrying Guns

Rap music star Vanilla Ice and his bodyguard were charged Friday with carrying loaded pistols, which they allegedly displayed when a transient offered to sell the performer jewelry outside a Studio City supermarket.

The 23-year-old rapper, whose legal name is Robert Van Winkle, was charged with possession of a loaded weapon, carrying a concealed weapon in public and allowing another person to have a weapon in his vehicle, said Los Angeles city attorney’s office spokesman Ted Goldstein.

Aaron Eric Martin, 22, Van Winkle’s bodyguard, was charged with possession of a loaded weapon and carrying a concealed weapon in public, Goldstein said.

Van Winkle and Martin are scheduled to be arraigned Monday in Division 101 of Van Nuys Municipal Court. Van Winkle, who is out of town, may not attend the hearing, but can be represented by an attorney, Goldstein said.

The two men were arrested June 3 after James N. Gregory, 36, who listed his address during “business hours” as a newsstand at the intersection of Laurel Canyon Boulevard and Moorpark Avenue in Studio City, accused Van Winkle and Martin of brandishing guns at him in the parking lot of a Ralphs supermarket.

Gregory told police he approached the rapper and Martin at 2 a.m., trying to sell them a silver chain. Van Winkle, sitting in the passenger seat of a 1991 Jeep Cherokee, showed him a 9-millimeter pistol and said, “Get . . away from me,” Gregory said.

Gregory said he thought the supermarket was being robbed and called North Hollywood police, officers said.

After officers determined that the robbery call was a false alarm, Gregory told the them that he wanted to make a citizen’s arrest of Van Winkle and Martin, Goldstein said.

Van Winkle was originally booked on suspicion of brandishing a weapon, but when investigators attempted to contact Gregory a week after the arrest for more information, “he just seemed to vanish,” Goldstein said.

He added that there might have been “an aspect of self-defense” in the confrontation because “it was an odd hour and an odd transaction.”

However, Goldstein said brandishing charges could still be filed against Van Winkle, pending further investigation.

If convicted of the charges, the rapper could be sentenced to up to two years in jail and a $3,000 fine.

As Vanilla Ice, the rapper scored a huge hit with his “To The Extreme” album and the single, “Ice Ice Baby.”

Van Winkle, who Goldstein said is in Europe on business, and his attorney, Larry Friedman, could not be reached for comment.