Actress Alyssa Milano called the police when she thought a gunman was on her property, after advocating to defund law enforcement earlier this summer.
Milano called 911 on Sunday morning after she and her husband heard gunshots on their Southern California property. Seven Ventura County Sheriff’s vehicles arrived to investigate the gunshots. The deputies were carrying rifles and wore tactical helmets. A fire department vehicle, a helicopter, and a K-9 unit were also called to the scene.
“We first noticed the helicopter circling overhead very low and knew something was going on; it’s usually such a quiet community,” a resident of the neighborhood where Milano lives with her husband and two children said. “Then, we saw all the police cars parked in front of Alyssa’s home. They had their guns at the ready and seemed very serious.”
Police were told that the suspect was “male, 40 years old, with long rifle.”
The couple told first responders that the sound of gunshots “scared their dogs.” The two were reportedly concerned that Jeff Turner, who has allegedly stalked Milano for over a decade, had returned to the property after two previous burglary attempts. Milano obtained a restraining order against Turner in 2008.
The search for the gunman lasted three hours until a teenager turned himself in.
“It turned out it was a neighborhood teen with an air gun shooting at squirrels,” a neighbor told the Daily Mail.
Milano has been an ardent supporter of the “defund the police” movement, posting her support on social media. In August, she called on her followers to support the People’s Budget L.A., which would allocate 1.64% of general funds to law enforcement.
What is the Los Angeles Police Protective League? @LAPPL is a narrow special interest group that lobbies our politicians to protect the LAPD budget, pension + officers. But electeds need to #ProtectPeopleNotPolice. Sign the #PeoplesBudgetLA petition: https://t.co/d2h2JS6NyU
— Alyssa Milano (@Alyssa_Milano) July 6, 2020
— Alyssa Milano (@Alyssa_Milano) August 10, 2020
This is the problem. We’ve militarized the police. To protect and serve? Please. How many hungry children would the cost of this tank feed? How many community programs would this serve? How many classroom supplies or childcare programs? Mental health services?#DefundPolice https://t.co/eSC0oLecfJ
— Alyssa Milano (@Alyssa_Milano) June 19, 2020
#DefundThePolice pic.twitter.com/9GNY1E3qiG
— Alyssa Milano (@Alyssa_Milano) July 17, 2020
One neighbor has criticized her public stance on defunding the police, labeling her “hypocritical” for calling law enforcement.
“She can tweet those things because, at the end of the day, she lives behind gates in a gated community. She knows the police will come to save her. But what about all those people who don’t have that luxury and live in unsafe neighborhoods? She obviously doesn’t care. She uses her platform in hypocritical ways. Why not send your husband into the yard to find out what is actually going on before you call the police? I would guesstimate the response today from law enforcement cost taxpayers thousands of dollars.”
In a Twitter thread posted on Tuesday afternoon, Milano explained that her neighbor spotted a man “dressed in all black” wandering through the woods near her property. The actress said her husband called 911 to determine when police were arriving. She said these sorts of incidents are “exactly the type of situations that police officers are trained for and should be responding to” and would “always support police having the resources they need for appropriate policing actions.”
Apparently, rightwing media & trolls have decided that they should target me because my neighbor called the police after seeing a person dressed in black holding a rifle behind my home where I live with my young children and husband. Here is my statement and what really happened. pic.twitter.com/RwnSd9XCs0
— Alyssa Milano (@Alyssa_Milano) September 22, 2020