The man who broke into Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass’s home over the weekend suffered a nervous breakdown while using drugs and thought he was being threatened and chased before running into her mansion, his family claims .
Ephraim Matthew Hunter, 29, was arrested Sunday morning after breaking into the famous Getty House on Irving Boulevard, the official residence of the mayor of Los Angeles.
Hunter’s mother, Josephine Duah, told DailyMail.com on Monday that she spoke with her son, who is still in a Los Angeles jail on $100,000 bail, according to Los County Sheriff’s Department jail records. Angels.
“My son is losing his mind,” Duah said through tears. He thought people were chasing him and he ran into that house randomly. He wasn’t trying to break into the mayor’s house.
Ephraim Matthew Hunter, 29, was arrested Sunday morning after breaking into the famous Getty House on Irving Boulevard, the official residence of the mayor of Los Angeles.
Relatives said Ephraim Matthew Hunter, 29, was having a mental breakdown and was on drugs the day he broke into Los Angeles Mayor Bass’s home in the Windsor Square neighborhood.
Karen Bass was inside the house with her family when Hunter broke a window and entered the Getty House, which is the mayor’s official residence.
Hunter had a troubled past with drugs and was arrested in 2015 in Massachusetts for kidnapping and attempted murder.
‘Thank God it wasn’t someone who would have pulled out a gun and shot him because he was simply trying to run away from someone who he thought was trying to get him.
“He didn’t know where he was or what he was doing. The truth is that he needs mental help.
Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón announced Tuesday afternoon that charges have been filed against Hunter, including first-degree residential burglary with a person present and one count of vandalism causing damage of $400 or further.
The charges filed against Hunter also include an allegation from a previous strike in Massachusetts.
Bass, her daughter and son-in-law were in the home during Sunday’s robbery, but were not harmed.
Gascón added that investigators believe Hunter targeted Bass and knew it was his house.
Hunter broke a glass window around 6:40 a.m. Sunday while the mayor and her family were inside the home, setting off an alarm that alerted police, LAPD spokesman Jeff Lee told DailyMail. com.
“Mayor Bass and her family were not injured and are safe,” the mayor’s office said in a statement. “Mayor thanks LAPD for responding and arresting suspect.”
Hunter was previously charged with kidnapping and attempted murder in Massachusetts in 2015, according to court records obtained by DailyMail.com.
He was sentenced to five to seven years in prison following a conviction for assault with a dangerous weapon, kidnapping, possession of heroin and armed robbery on March 2, 2015.
Hunter spent six years in prison and was released on parole in June 2021, according to court records.
His family tried to provide support and even started a fundraiser to help Hunter get back on his feet once he was released from prison.
Mayor Karen Bass has lived in the Getty home since taking office.
“The reason most people who get out of prison come back is because of a lack of support,” Hunter’s brother Joshua wrote in a GoFundMe post. ‘Nothing that will make them return to society. As they struggle to get a job because of their background, some have nowhere to turn but back to the streets.
‘This is what we don’t want to see in Ephraim. With help we can provide him with the necessary funds so that he can start to improve a little.’
The family was able to raise $4,846 for Hunter.
Hunter’s mother said he had drug problems in Massachusetts and was hanging out with “the wrong crowd” when he was arrested and charged in 2015.
Old posts from his Instagram account showed a younger Hunter smoking marijuana and wads of cash along with some drugs. A post from 2012 showed Hunter with an ankle monitor on his leg.
Hunter’s mother, Josephine Duah, told DailyMail.com that her son moved to California to get away from his troubled past and bad influences. She said she had a “well-paying job” before her son started using drugs again.
Duah said she thought moving to California would be a new beginning for her troubled son.
“He was doing very well in California,” he told DailyMail.com. ‘She was working so much that we told her that you can’t work seven days a week.
“He was making very good money, so I know he didn’t need to steal or take anything.” She just took that drug and took him to where he thought he was losing his mind.
Duah said her son doesn’t live near Bass’s home and told him he didn’t know which house he broke into.
“He had a drug problem before, but he went to California and was doing great until it hit him again,” Duah said through tears. ‘The problem is that there are many medications available in California.
‘Whatever that drug was, he was in this drug-induced state that made him afraid of everything. I want people to understand that he wasn’t trying to break in. ‘He feared for his life.’
Duah said her son was so mentally unstable that he thought she was outside the mayor’s house screaming his name.
“He thought they were holding me down and telling him to get out of the house, but of course I wasn’t there,” said Duah, who lives in Massachusetts. “It was everywhere and it didn’t make any sense.
‘He needs help and that’s the only reason I’m talking. I’m your mom and I know you need help. She has only been taking the drugs for weeks and it quickly deteriorated him mentally. I really don’t understand what made him do that because he was doing great. He just took that drug and took him to where he thought he was losing his mind.
Josephine Duah said her son was so mentally unstable that she thought she was outside Mayor Karen Bass’s house screaming his name. She blames drugs for her son’s mental breakdown
Bass served as a Democratic member of Congress from 2011 until her election as the city’s 43rd mayor in 2022.
The former state Assembly leader is the first woman and second Black person to hold the position, after former Mayor Tom Bradley, who served from 1973 to 1993.
Mayor Bass has helped push progressive policies across the city, including cashless bail.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and her family were not harmed during Sunday’s incident, LAPD officials said.
The no-bail policy was first implemented in Los Angeles during the COVID pandemic shutdown in 2020 to relieve overcrowded city and county jails.
Suspects arrested for non-violent crimes were immediately released without bail prior to their arraignment.
California law allows judges to set bail based on the defendant’s criminal history and the severity of the crime.
The policy was reinstated in May 2023 after Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Lawrence Riff ruled in favor of a group of activists who sued the county and claimed they had suffered under the cash bail system.
Critics say eliminating cash bail crimes is an invitation for those to continue blatantly breaking the law.
Sunday’s incident is the second time in three years that Bass has been the victim of a robbery.
In 2022, while he was running for office, two men stole a pair of handguns from his home in Baldwin Vista.
They only took the two weapons, leaving behind cash and electronic devices.
Patricio Muñoz and Juan Espinoza pleaded no contest last year to robbery and grand theft of a firearm. Both received prison sentences.