LOS ANGELES -- A reputed gang member is being held on $2.25 million bail after being charged with shooting at a helicopter that was searching for a robbery suspect in southern Los Angeles County.

Images

Martin Gudino, 23, was arrested Thursday, the day after the shooting, and was charged Wednesday with shooting at an inhabited aircraft and multiple counts of attempted murder of a peace officer in connection with last week's incident.

The pilot landed safely at the sheriff's Carson station, and no one was hurt, Whitmore said.

Gudino is scheduled to be in Compton Municipal Court on June 10, according to the sheriff's department reported. Whitmore said three teenage boys were also arrested as "accessories" and would also face charges.

"We definitely believe that the person who was responsible (was) trying to kill our deputies," Deputy Oscar Butao, also of the Sheriff's Headquarters Bureau, said earlier.

The helicopter was en route to a reported robbery in the 800 block of West Torrance Boulevard about 11 p.m. that Wednesday when bullets struck it in the belly and tail, the sheriff's department reported.

Deputies searched for the source of the gunfire and focused on a neighborhood near Berendo Avenue and Milton Street.

At about 5 a.m. Thursday, helmeted SWAT deputies in fatigues surrounded a residence and used a vehicle-mounted battering ram to crash into the garage of the home, where several people were detained, including Gudino.

The residence was known as a gang hangout, deputies said.