By Steve Neavling
Two men have been convicted of robbing an off-duty Secret Service agent at gunpoint after the agent had finished working at a high-profile Los Angeles fundraiser attended by President Joe Biden, NBC News reports.
The robbery took place on June 15, shortly after the agent, who remains unidentified, left the star-studded campaign event in Los Angeles, held before Biden’s decision not to pursue the Democratic presidential nomination this year.
According to the Orange County District Attorney’s Office, the agent was walking in a residential neighborhood in Tustin, approximately 35 miles southeast of Los Angeles, when a man exited a gray SUV and approached him. The man, later identified as 32-year-old Jamonte Fitzgerald Johnson from Fontana, aimed a gun at the agent and seized his laptop bag.
While fleeing back to the SUV, Johnson reportedly dropped the gun, which was subsequently recovered by Tustin detectives. Additional stolen items, including the agent’s cell phone and radio, were found discarded nearby as the attackers made their escape.
Johnson’s DNA, found on the recovered gun and some of the agent’s belongings, linked him to the crime and ultimately led to his arrest on July 11 in Riverside, along with two other individuals connected to the robbery.
Prosecutors identified Johnson as a “third striker,” indicating prior convictions for serious or violent felonies under California’s “three strikes” law. His previous convictions include attempted residential burglary in 2012 and residential burglary in 2013, both in San Bernardino. Johnson is also on federal parole for weapons violations, officials added.
