Off-duty LAX cop harassed woman in bar, brandished gun at her, then fired it outside, police say

Richard Winton
·2 min read
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LOS ANGELES, CA - MAY 19, 2020 - - A plane arrives as a few Uber drivers pick up customers a day after Uber Technologies, Inc. cut 3,000 jobs as their business has been gutted by the coronavirus at Los Angeles International Airport in Los Angeles on May 19, 2020. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)
A plane arrives at Los Angeles International Airport. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

A veteran Los Angeles International Airport police officer was arrested while off duty on suspicion of sexually battering a woman in a bar, brandishing a gun and then shooting it on a nearby street.

Officers responded to a call about 1 a.m. Sunday about a man brandishing a gun in a threatening manner at the Jade Restaurant on East Pacific Coast Highway in Long Beach, police said in a statement.

Robert Mosquera, 47, was arrested a short time later in a visibly drunken state, police said.

A woman told officers she was sitting at a bar when a man, later identified as Mosquera, "repeatedly touched her arm inappropriately," the department said in a statement.

When the woman told him "she did not want to be touched, the suspect displayed a firearm and then put it back into his waistband," police said of the incident. Mosquera then left the restaurant.

Read more: Off-duty LAPD officer arrested in stabbing of fellow bar patron

About 10 minutes later, officers received a call of gunshots in the 7100 block of nearby Marina Pacifica Drive, police said. Officers discovered a man under the influence of alcohol, matching the description of the woman's assailant from the restaurant, and arrested him, according to Long Beach Police.

As officers examined the scene, they found evidence of a shooting, including strike marks and casings, police said. No one was injured during the shooting.

Mosquera was booked into the Long Beach City Jail for exhibiting a firearm in a threatening manner, sexual battery, public intoxication, and negligently discharging a firearm, police said. He bailed out 12 hours later.

Mosquera is an officer with the police division of Los Angeles World Airports, which patrols LAX. Officials did not return messages seeking information on Mosquera's status with the department.

He is a decorated 15-year member of the airport police department who once saved a woman's life at LAX. He previously worked as a Los Angeles police jailer for two years.

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.