Military exercises across Southern California have shaken some residents as sounds of gunfire and helicopters have erupted in the middle of the night.
A series of military exercises taking place in empty buildings across the Southland are rattling residents. Here, a military helicopter was photographed in Long Beach Thursday evening.
Late-night military training exercises with helicopters, simulated gunfire and flash grenades in Pasadena, Long Beach and other suburbs jolted residents this week as elite troops stormed vacant hospitals and malls. City officials say they were given minimal details and little control over the operations, notifying the public only hours beforehand as angry neighbors flooded police and city hall with calls.
Pasadena leaders now want answers, questioning whether such war games in fire-scarred neighborhoods reflect new federal training priorities — or even an intimidation tactic — after President Trump urged using cities as military training grounds. A series of military exercises taking place in empty buildings across the Southland are scaring residents and rattling neighbors as the sound of gunfire rings out in the dark and troops descend from helicopters.
Multiple nights this week, the sounds of simulated urban warfare have erupted in the middle of the night in parts of sleepy Pasadena and Long Beach and in an empty mall in the San Gabriel Valley. As some residents went to bed, video showed a helicopter thundering across the sky as soldiers jumped onto the roof of an empty hospital in the middle of a tree-lined residential neighborhood in Pasadena Wednesday night.
Officials have said they’ve been given little notice and had no say on where or when the exercises would take place.
“People are trying to sleep,” said Rick Cole, a Pasadena City Council member in a video posted on Instagram late Wednesday as the training continued in the background. “This is going to go on for a while and good luck to the people who have to get up and go to work tomorrow morning. ”Dozens of U.S. citizens and immigrants are seeking millions in damages, alleging excessive force, wrongful detention and other abuses by federal agents during immigration raids.
The operation, at the vacant St. Luke Medical Center in the 2600 block of East Washington Boulevard, included simulated gunfire, flash grenades and a military helicopter that hovered over the building. Police were told by the military about the training and asked officers to provide security around the abandoned hospital months ago, a city spokesperson told The Times.
But city officials were not given details about the operation, and were not able to notify the public until hours before the training began.
“It’s troubling and disappointing the federal government would not provide the leadership of this city information to share with our constituents, particularly because the same neighborhood was significantly impacted by the Eaton fire,” Pasadena Mayor Victor Gordo said. Asked what the city knew before the drills, Gordo said police had been informed of activity but not the scope and significance. He noted that the drills were taking place at locations scheduled to host Olympic events.
A U.S. military officer familiar with the exercises told The Times the training involved “highly trained soldiers who operated in challenging situations and terrains and want real-life facilities.
“They don’t train on the same cinder-block training facilities as other units,” said the officer, who was not authorized to discuss the matter with the media. Despite the notification to the city’s Police Department, elected city officials said they received no notice about the training until just a few hours before it was set to begin.
“It was very generic information,” read a statement from the city. “Minimal details were shared with the Police Department. The City notified the public a few hours before the exercise was to begin. The City had no control on the timing of the exercise or specific details.
Our priority was the safety of the residents and vehicle traffic in the immediate area. ” A notice was sent out to residents at 5:30 p.m., and elected council members were notified via text six minutes prior.
“How does this happen, and how come we didn’t hear about it sooner? ” Cole asked.
“This was a war game in a residential neighborhood recently devastated by catastrophic fire that took place in a weeknight, in the middle of the night. ” Cole said he’s inquired why the City Council and the public were not notified earlier about the operation, which occurred at multiple Southern California cities this week. The soldiers training in Pasadena, the officer said, were highly specialized operators who do training in Southern California and arrived at Los Alamitos.
It is not uncommon for the units to train at defunct malls or abandoned businesses in Los Angeles County. An official said the helicopter seen in the regional training was from the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, or SOAR. Cole recorded video of the training just outside the hospital and the sounds of simulated gunfire can be heard in the background of theand grenades went on for about 45 minutes.
Cole states that part of the training was supposed to take place at about midnight, but was pushed back because of “technical difficulties. ” “I really don’t understand why the U.S. military needs to come into a residential neighborhood without notice and be setting off artificial flash bangs at midnight when people are trying to get sleep,” he said on the post.
“I understand why people are outraged. ” Lisa Derderian, a spokesperson for the city of Pasadena, confirmed city officials received a number of calls inquiring about the training, including some residents who asked for supervisors and a police lieutenant to answer for the event.also showed flashes and bangs in neighborhoods, and the loud rotor of a helicopter overhead. One video showed a helicopter landing in a dark parking lot, while uniformed soldiers rushed the aircraft and were lifted out.
Cole said he was concerned not just with the lack of notice, but whether the training was part of an intimidation tactic from the federal government to California cities.
“Is this part of some pattern of, you know, either training for domestic warfare or intimidating a domestic audience? ” Cole asked.
“Frankly, I don’t have a good answer for that. ” In September of last year, while addressing a rare gathering of top U.S. military leaders in Quantico, Va. , President Trump said he was interested in using U.S. cities as training grounds for the military. During his address, he criticized Democratic leaders in U.S. cities for their response to immigration protests.
The comments came about three months after the president deployed“And I told Pete , we should use some of these dangerous cities as training grounds for our military,” Trump said in the speech. Salvador Hernandez is a reporter on the Fast Break Desk, the Los Angeles Times’ breaking news team. Before joining the newsroom in 2022, he was a senior reporter for BuzzFeed News, where he covered criminal justice issues, the growing militia movement and breaking news.
He also covered crime as a reporter at the Orange County Register. He is a Los Angeles native. Richard Winton is an investigative crime writer for the Los Angeles Times and part of the team that won the Pulitzer Prize for public service in 2011. Known ason X, during almost 30 years at The Times he also has been part of the breaking news staff that won Pulitzers in 1998, 2004 and 2016.
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