BURBANK : LAPD Officer Detained After Gun Incident in Bar

A Los Angeles police officer was detained but not arrested by Burbank authorities after a bar manager alleged that he placed a gun on the counter and threatened to shoot anyone who tried to make him put it away.

Sources identified the officer as Peter Ceinion Jones, a 14-year veteran of the department who works as a mounted patrol officer with the Metropolitan Division. Jones, 38, was not at work Wednesday and could not be reached for comment.

The officer was taken to Burbank police headquarters shortly after 8 p.m. Tuesday but was not booked. He was later turned over to the LAPD, which is conducting an internal investigation into the officer’s conduct, authorities said. Neither department would identify the officer.

Burbank police said the criminal investigation was continuing into the incident and that city prosecutors will determine if Jones will face misdemeanor charges. “Based on what I’ve heard about the case, I think it would be appropriate to file criminal charges,” Lt. Bob Giles, the night watch commander in Burbank, said Wednesday. Los Angeles police spokesman Lt. John Dunkin said the LAPD is conducting its own internal investigation.

Jones has been suspended twice without pay in the past two years, according to police records. He was suspended for five days this year for having “inappropriately touched” a female police officer at her home, according to department documents and interviews with police officials. Jones acknowledged having a drinking problem and admitted himself to an alcohol treatment facility, according to police records of the case.

In the second case, Jones was suspended for two days for neglect of duty for a November, 1991, incident in which he failed to conduct a proper weapons search of a suspect, which led to an officer-involved shooting, a police panel ruled.

In the Tuesday incident, a bartender who claimed to have witnessed Jones’ actions said he had only served him two beers and that he did not appear to be drunk. The bartender, Lou Rinker, said that after the man placed a gun on the bar, he made threatening remarks to him and to a female bar patron. “I asked him to put it away. And he said he didn’t have to,” Rinker said. “He said if I tried to take it away from him he’d blow my head off with it. . . . And he threatened to beat up and shoot one of my customers, a lady.”