Long Beach police work with the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department bomb squad at a call to Heartwell Park in Long Beach on Monday, July 30, 2018, to handle a suspicious device. Photo by Thomas R Cordova
Police evacuated portions of Heartwell Park Monday morning because of a suspicious device in the area, according to authorities.
Someone found the item around 9:50 a.m. and called police, saying he or she thought it was a firework, Long Beach police spokeswoman Arantxa Chavarria said. This prompted the bomb squad to head to the scene, which was near Parkcrest Street and Greenbrier Road, Long Beach police spokesman OfficerBenHearst said.
They were able to dispose of the device before 12:45 p.m., Hearst said. Police couldn’t immediately say whether the device was indeed a firework or turned out to be something else.
Detectives remained at the scene Monday afternoon, and police expected Parkcrest to be closed from Hanbury Street to Charlemagne Avenue for several hours.
Long Beach police work with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department bomb squad at a call to Heartwell Park in Long Beach on Monday, July 30, 2018, to handle a suspicious device. Photo by Thomas R CordovaLong Beach police work with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department bomb squad at a call to Heartwell Park in Long Beach on Monday, July 30, 2018, to handle a suspicious device. Photo by Thomas R CordovaLong Beach police work with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department bomb squad at a call to Heartwell Park in Long Beach on Monday, July 30, 2018, to handle a suspicious device. Photo by Thomas R CordovaLong Beach police work with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department bomb squad at a call to Heartwell Park in Long Beach on Monday, July 30, 2018, to handle a suspicious device. Photo by Thomas R CordovaLong Beach police work with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department bomb squad at a call to Heartwell Park in Long Beach on Monday, July 30, 2018, to handle a suspicious device. Photo by Thomas R CordovaLong Beach police work with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department bomb squad at a call to Heartwell Park in Long Beach on Monday, July 30, 2018, to handle a suspicious device. Photo by Thomas R Cordova
Jeremiah Dobruck is executive editor of the Long Beach Post where he oversees all day-to-day newsroom operations. In his time working as a journalist in Long Beach, he’s won numerous awards for his investigative reporting and editing. Before coming to the Post in 2018, he wrote for publications including the Press-Telegram, Orange County Register and Los Angeles Times. Reach him at [email protected] or @jeremiahdobruck on Twitter.
