A retired Los Angeles Police Department homicide detective was charged Wednesday with assault with a semi-automatic firearm stemming from an alleged confrontation last month in a South Los Angeles parking lot.
Charles Gerald Tizano, 70, is scheduled to be arraigned Friday in a downtown Los Angeles courtroom on the felony charge, which includes an allegation that he personally used a firearm, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office.
Tizano allegedly got into a dispute Sept. 6 with the driver of a vehicle that was blocking the exit of a parking lot at West Adams Boulevard and South Broadway, according to the District Attorney’s Office.
The retired LAPD detective allegedly pointed a loaded semi-automatic handgun at a bystander who tried to intervene, according to the District Attorney’s Office.
Tizano was arrested Sept. 6 by officers from the Los Angeles Police Department’s Newton Division, and released the next day on $50,000 bond, according to jail records.
Los Angeles police refused last month to confirm or deny whether Tizano was a retired Robbery-Homicide Division detective, saying that they were only required to confirm that he is a “retired Los Angeles city employee” who allegedly “had a dispute with someone” that led to his arrest.
Tizano could face up to 19 years in state prison if convicted as charged, according to the District Attorney’s Office.
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