A Westchester man who allegedly threatened to blow up the White House then led police on a chase that ended with an hours-long standoff near the federal building in Westwood was charged Monday with making a false bomb threat and attempted criminal threats.
Joseph Moshe, 56, was expected to be arraigned this afternoon at the Airport Branch Courthouse. Moshe was arrested late Thursday afternoon after a more than eight-hour standoff at Veteran Avenue south of Wilshire Boulevard.
According to police and prosecutors, Moshe called the Los Angeles Police Department's Command Division on Wednesday and threatened to blow up the White House. He also allegedly threatened an LAPD communications employee after she refused to give him her name.
Moshe's neighbors said U.S. Secret Service agents went to Moshe's home Wednesday night, but he didn't answer the door.
Federal agents and LAPD officers spotted Moshe in his red Volkswagen around 10 a.m. Thursday, but he drove off, prompting a chase that went north on the San Diego (405) Freeway and ended in a parking lot driveway just south of the federal building in Westwood.
Moshe remained inside the vehicle for more than eight hours, refusing to speak with officers. Late in the day, police pumped at least four rounds of chemical agents into the car, but Moshe did not come out until an officer was able to hit him with a Taser through his rolled-down window.
He remains jailed in lieu of $70,000 bail.
