A gunman was shot dead by police after he went on a shooting rampage along a Hollywood street after his girlfriend of four and a half years broke up with him. She has described how she woke to 14 text messages, many from the shooter, informing her of his death. Ironically, Sean Penn and Ryan Gosling’s crime drama, Gangster Squad, was being filmed near where the incident occurred and the REAL gunshots were heard on set. Continue reading and view footage of the gunman in action after the jump.
Alicia Alligood, 24, had broken up with her boyfriend of four-and-a-half years Tyler Brehm, 26, just days before he went on the spree that left one man in critical condition and two injured.
But she was unaware of his involvement in the shooting until she woke at 7 a.m. the following day to 14 text messages – many from the shooter himself.
Brehm, who neighbours said struggled to get over the December 1 breakup, sent messages minutes before he stood on the Hollywood intersection and shot at passing vehicles.
He had also left Alligood a voicemail hours earlier, telling her he loved her.
But Alligood described her former boyfriend as a ‘humanitarian’, and someone who was ‘extremely motivated to change the world for the better’, even managing a non-profit organisation for a friend.
Speaking to KTLA, she added he had been ‘really stressed out lately’.
He had met a woman he thought was a pharmaceutical saleswoman who had given him some kind of pills, Alligood said.
He began taking the pills, which Alligood found alarming as he had never taken ‘hard’ drugs before.
After the breakup, he had moved to his own apartment half a mile from the scene of the shooting, she said.
Neighbours said Brehm had been struggling to overcome the separation.
‘He wasn’t a bad guy, he just got fed up,’ friend Christina Mesropian told KNBC. ‘He was like “Ah, I’m over it, I’m over it,†but I could tell he wasn’t over it.’
Ramon Hernandez, who lived in the apartment next door to Brehm, said the couple had recently moved out. He told KABC-TV he had heard them arguing.
‘I could tell that he was an unstable person,’ Hernandez said, ‘but I don’t know the details on what actually made him snap.’
Police have not yet announced a motive for the crime, but Alligood said she believed the breakup was the trigger.
Brehm, who was Hispanic and dressed in a white sweat vest, walked down the middle of Sunset Boulevard on Friday, firing on motorists and in the air until he was shot and killed.
Passers-by initially thought he was an actor from a movie being filmed nearby – until he was shot dead by a policeman.
Brehm wounded three people – one critically – before he was killed by an off-duty officer working as a security guard on the neighbouring film, believed to be a gangster thriller starring Sean Penn.
He was filmed from an office block as he stood in the middle of the road firing on pedestrians and motorists.
In the video, he can be seen pacing back and forth near the busy intersection with Vine Street, firing close to 20 rounds from what appeared to be a .40 caliber handgun.
One victim has been named as John Atterberry, a former music industry executive who has worked with artists like Brandy, The Spice Girls and Jessica Simpson.
The 40-year-old driver of a Mercedes-Benz, who now works as a film producer, was shot in the jaw and upper torso on a routine trip to the bank.
He was taken to hospital and remains in critical condition.
Witness Micah Williams said he thought the suspect was part of a movie. ‘Then the third bullet ricocheted right by our head and I was like, “Dude, they’re shooting at us,â€â€‰â€™ he said.
Another bystander, Gregory Bojorquez, said: ‘At first it seemed like a movie but then I heard the sound of the bullets hitting metal. It was bizarre, like something from a cop show. You get so used to seeing filming in LA that lots of people were watching it thinking it was for a film.’
It is thought the gunman ran out of bullets and had pulled a knife from his belt when he was shot by the policeman.
‘He was screaming he was going to die and that he wanted to die,’ Bojorquez, a photographer who captured images of the shooting’s aftermath, told the Los Angeles Times.
‘He was just kind of shooting spontaneously,’ witness William Wiles told The Baltimore Sun Times, recalling what he saw as he watched incident from his bedroom window.
‘He didn’t really have any mission or purpose or anyone in particular,’ Mr Wiles continued.
One man suffered a grazing wound to his left thigh when a bullet passed through his car door. Another man had minor cuts from broken glass after bullet struck the driver door where it met the window.
Another witness, Chris Johns, said: ‘This was like a serious mad man. He snapped and he’s going to try to kill as many people as possible,’ Mr Johns said.
He continued shooting at vehicles and in the air when he was confronted by the officers.
They ordered the suspect to drop his weapon. He was shot when he pointed his weapon at the officers. The gunman was pronounced dead at the scene.
A truck and another car were struck by bullets, and two people were treated at the scene for minor injuries.
Sean Penn and Ryan Gosling’s crime drama, Gangster Squad, is being filmed nearby.
It is unknown if the actors were on set during the real-life shooting, but they would have heard the gunfire.
In the Los Angeles area, every movie production is required to have a permit, so if there is shooting, for a movie, locals are notified for any loud noises and big signs are placed on street corners.
The area was cordoned off and the gunman lay under a white sheet in the street hours after the gunfire, leaving traffic tangled on busy Hollywood streets, an area is packed with stores and restaurants.
