A chain-saw-wielding vandal cut 13 trees in downtown L.A. How the LAPD tracked down a suspect
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- Police have arrested a man for allegedly damaging or cutting down 13 trees in downtown Los Angeles.
- LAPD detectives were able to track down a suspect — Samuel Patrick Groft, 44 — thanks to tips and surveillance video.
First, it was just a limb sawed from a tree at a North Figueroa Street intersection on April 13.
Then the next day, three mature trees were cut down on West Temple Street in downtown, about two miles away.
A few days later, another fell on North Broadway. Then it was three more on West 8th Street.
The bizarre vandalism almost went unnoticed as none of the felled trees were initially reported to Los Angeles police — that is until the morning of April 19, when three huge trees were discovered downed across South Grand Avenue.
The images of those disturbing losses cycled through social media and quickly made it onto local news. Two more were found nearby that day, all sliced cleanly through their trunks.
The outrage and shock over the vandalism helped draw a slew of tips, including surveillance video evidence, that police would ultimately use to piece together the confusing case of the city’s tree cutter and track down a suspect before more trees were lost.
On April 21, two days after the South Grand Avenue trees were reported, police arrested 44-year-old Samuel Patrick Groft, finding him in possession of a spray-painted electric chain saw. Detectives said they have linked him to a total of 13 tree cuttings in and around downtown over a span of seven days. City officials estimated damage for just six of the trees amounted to more than $170,000.
Groft has since pleaded not guilty to several counts of felony vandalism. His attorney, Julieta Flores, declined to comment on the case after a hearing Thursday. Flores successfully argued that two of the counts should be reduced to misdemeanors without evidence that the tree damage exceeded $400.
However, Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge George Lomeli found that, overall, prosecutors had sufficient evidence to proceed with their case against Groft.
“It appears to this court that the charges in the underlying complaint … have been committed,” Lomeli said at a preliminary hearing Thursday. “There is probable cause and a strong suspicion that the conduct involved this defendant, Mr. Samuel Groft.”
Groft, who was wearing a yellow Los Angeles County Jail T-shirt and had one hand handcuffed to his chair during the hearing, didn’t appear to react to the decision. However, he often sent notes or spoke — sometimes quite animatedly — to his attorney during the proceeding. He is facing nine felony charges and two misdemeanors, accused of cutting down 12 trees and cutting off one limb on another. He continues to be held in jail in lieu of $350,000 bail.
No motive for the vandalism has been shared publicly, but at the hearing Thursday, Det. Jose Hidalgo testified that Groft had admitted to knowing about several of the felled trees after his arrest.
While Groft didn’t explicitly confess to the vandalism when he was interviewed by police, Hidalgo said that he identified himself when shown surveillance footage of a suspect captured near certain felled trees.
As police investigate the destruction of mature trees in downtown Los Angeles, the blatant vandalism has reignited concerns about the city core’s decline.
Upon his arrest from a homeless encampment in Chinatown — where he’d been living — Groft told officers he was surprised the arrest was occurring on Earth Day, Hidalgo testified.
“He said something like, ‘I love trees, I love bark, I’m an arborist,’” Hidalgo said.
Tracking down Groft involved officers from three different Los Angeles Police Department divisions and many helpful tips, officers said.
After the downtown tree cuttings became public, security guards and business owners around the city began reporting similar cuttings that had happened in recent days. Several of them provided surveillance footage of a man on a bicycle, wearing a camouflage hat and carrying a backpack, duffel bag and what appeared to be a chain saw, officers testified.
One tip came in anonymously with surveillance footage that showed a similar man cutting a limb from a tree at the corner of North Figueroa Street and West Avenue 26 in broad daylight. LAPD Det. Ryan Watterson used other surveillance footage to confirm the man had come from a nearby Harbor Freight hardware store — where a receipt from the store confirmed both his name and that he had bought a chain saw that day.
A suspect was arrested after surveillance video and community tips led police to a man they say used a chain saw to cut down at least 13 trees in and around downtown Los Angeles.
Using that information, detectives were able to locate Groft at a homeless encampment where he had previously talked to a student journalist from Cal State L.A. about living on the streets. Groft was cooperative during his arrest, Hidalgo said. They found in his possession the same brand chain saw he had bought from Harbor Freight, as well as a bike, duffel bag and hat that matched many of the images from surveillance footage where trees had been cut down.
Los Angeles County Deputy Dist. Atty. Cynthia Valenzuela said several of the trees were cut down during the day, others at night. The first limb was cut from a tree on North Figueroa Street on April 13; three trees were cut down at 717 W. Temple St. on April 14; on April 17, one was cut from 555 North Broadway; three trees were downed at 1550 W. 8th St. on April 18; and five were cut on April 19, four of them on South Grand Avenue and one on South Hope Street, she said.
The three at 350 S. Grand Ave. were Chinese elms, while the others nearby were ficus trees, Valenzuela said. The three on West 8th Street were a type of dragon tree, and the ones on West Temple Street were junipers, she said. Some were on city property and others were on private property, she said.
Dan Halden, a spokesperson for the city’s Bureau of Street Services, had previously said the city was removing the remaining stumps and evaluating the replacement cost. He was not immediately available Thursday to provide updates on possible tree replacement plans on city property.
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