Charges filed against L.A. rapper who allegedly flashed gun in video

Oct. 27, 2015 6:24 PM PT

A man accused of flashing a handgun while filming a Los Angeles police officer as part of a promotional video for his rap group is facing a felony gun charge, according to court documents obtained Tuesday.

Alex Izquierdo, 35, was charged with having a concealed firearm inside a vehicle, according to the one-count criminal complaint filed last week.

Prosecutors allege Izquierdo -- who they said was convicted in 1999 of carrying a concealed gun -- committed the crime “with the specific intent to promote, further and assist in criminal conduct by gang members.”

The complaint did not elaborate.

Izquierdo is scheduled to be arraigned Thursday, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office said.

Although the video drew the ire of the city’s police union and caused concern among Los Angeles Police Department officials, Izquierdo and others have said the clip was only an attempt to gain publicity for a comeback album from Brownside, a 1990s Chicano rap group founded by former N.W.A member Eazy-E.

On Tuesday, the group’s publicist, Phyllis Pollack, called the charges “ridiculous” and repeated Izquierdo’s claim that the gun seen in the video was not real.

“You can turn on any kind of television show and you can see prop guns and police cars all the time. But when a rapper does it, especially someone who happens to be of Latino descent, then it’s a real issue,” said Pollack, a former music journalist who also served as a publicist for Eazy-E. “This is for a music video. That gun was never raised above the dashboard.”

The recording, which began circulating across social media Oct. 5, appears to have been taken from a car parked behind a black-and-white LAPD cruiser. The video had no sound, but the camera focuses in on the cruiser before panning down to show someone’s hand holding what police have described as a revolver.

The person briefly angles the gun for the camera before tucking it away. The camera then cuts back to the patrol car, showing an officer getting out and walking away.

Pollack said Izquierdo did not seek out the police cruiser. He simply decided the images might be “cool” for an upcoming music video that Brownside planned to release to accompany its comeback album.

“This is a music video, and it’s not telling people to kill cops,” she said. “There is no song on the album that is telling people to kill cops.”

Pollack also scoffed at the idea that Izquierdo’s actions promoted gang activity. She said Izquierdo and his older brother Gilbert, a founding member of Brownside who performs under the stage name Toker, are not affiliated with gangs.

But with the video’s appearance on social media coming after a recent spate of attacks on police officers across the country, the video quickly stoked concerns among the LAPD’s rank-and-file.

The head of the city’s police union said the video was indicative of “the anti-police narrative being communicated by some in our society,” and officers were ordered to patrol in pairs while the department’s Robbery-Homicide Division investigated the potential threat.

Earlier this month, Izquierdo, who goes by the rap name Klever, said on social media (warning: explicit content) that the LAPD was trying to frame him.

“They have me all over the news behind some BS lie they are making up!! All behind a prop gun!!” he wrote in all capital letters on Instagram two weeks ago.

Izquerido was arrested and released on $200,000 bail a few days after the video surfaced.

Follow @katemather for more LAPD news and @JamesQueallyLAT for breaking crime news.

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