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LAPD officers are having to save face this week after an attempted drug bust went horribly wrong an officer had his gun sucked into an MRI machine.
The raid occurred in October of 2023 at NoHo Diagnostic Center, but is now going viral after the medical facility sued the department, the city, and multiple officers.
The facility alleges that defendants violated the business owners’ constitutional rights and demanded an unspecified amount in damages.
But here’s the kicker, the bust did not even uncover any drugs.
Officers allegedly raided the diagnostic center because they believed it was a front for an illegal cannabis cultivation facility.
Their evidence? Higher-than-usual energy use and the “distinct odor” of cannabis plants, according to the lawsuit.
The higher-than-usual energy use is in line with what you would expect from a facility that operates an MRI machine.
MRI machines are larger tube-shaped scanners. They use extremely powerful magnetic fields to create images of the brain, bones, joints and other internal organs.
Anybody who has had an MRI will tell you that you have to take several precautions before entering the machine. Among those precautions is making sure that you have nothing magnet in or on your body.
But this officer apparently ignored that warning, instead rushing in to the MRI room, passing a sign warning him that metal was prohibited inside.
According to the suit, his gun was “dangling… in his right hand, with an unsecured strap.”
The force of the machine ripped the gun from his body, pinning it against the machine. Another officer then pressed a sealed emergency release button to shut down the machine but damaged the machine in the process. The first officer then retrieved his gun and walked out, but left behind a magazine filled with bullets.
Some serious keystone cops stuff going on here.
LAPD has not commented publicly on the suit.