Hollywood actress Alyssa Milano has caught herself up in another controversy.
The “Charmed” star and political activist’s neighbor called police last Sunday to report a possible gunman near her house in the Bell Canyon area, California.
A spokesperson for the Ventura County Sherrif’s Office told Fox News that they were called a number of times by people in the area and that the first person who called was not related to the actress.
Daily Mail, which obtained pictures from the police response, reports that 7 police vehicles, a K-9 unit, the LA Fire Department, as well as a helicopter responded to the call.
Officers responded to some more calls in Milano’s neighborhood on Sunday in response to a potential gun-wielding man.
“We first noticed the helicopter circling overhead very low and knew something was going on, it’s usually such a quiet community,” a neighbor told the Mail. “Then we saw all the police cars parked in front of Alyssa’s home. They had their guns at the ready and seemed very serious.”
Alyssa Milano gave a statement to Fox News explaining that her neighbor called 911 after noticing “a man dressed in all black, walking in the woods between our properties with a gun,” which she referred to as “a rare sight in our parts.”
Milano’s husband then called the police “to check on when police would be arriving.”
Cops then found the gunman was in fact a hunter trying to catch squirrels with an air rifle.
According to the actress’ statement, the hunter called the police to inform them of his activities and to apologize
“for the commotion he had caused.”
Milano has been at the forefront of a new movement calling to defund the police following the deaths of a number of black people at the hands of cops.
Reportedly, Milano has owned the $2.5 million house since 2001 and lives there with her husband, Dave Bugliari, and her two kids, Milo and Elizabella.
One of the neighbors criticized the actress after she had called for defunding the police.
“She can tweet those things because at the end of the day she lives behind gates in a gated community. She knows the police will come to save her,” the person told the Daily Mail. “But what about all those people who don’t have that luxury and live in unsafe neighborhoods? She obviously doesn’t care.”
Several times this year, Milano tweeted “#DefundThePolice,” once including a John Oliver video saying that the movement does not mean canceling policing, but that it actually focuses on funding mental health service and community housing.
#DefundThePolice pic.twitter.com/uyuRLsTKtA
— Alyssa Milano (@Alyssa_Milano) June 9, 2020
A second tweet came from her paired with a video of a black man being threatened by a cop during what seems to have been a traffic stop.
#DefundThePolice pic.twitter.com/9GNY1E3qiG
— Alyssa Milano (@Alyssa_Milano) July 17, 2020
The actress talked about the controversy in Tuesday’s statement, explaining that the investigation of a potential gunman is a good reason to call 911.
“These are exactly the type of situations that police officers are trained for and should be responding to, and we will always support police having the resources they need for appropriate policing actions,” Milano said. “We’d love to see equally trained non-police professionals respond to addiction and mental health crises and non-violent events so that these brave officers can do the jobs they are so good at handling, as they demonstrated this weekend.”
Correct. I never called the police. But I would have if I saw a guy with a gun in my backyard.
— Alyssa Milano (@Alyssa_Milano) September 22, 2020
In addition, she thanked the police department on Twitter and stressed on social media that she “never called the police,” calling claims that she had “a lie.”
That is a lie.
— Alyssa Milano (@Alyssa_Milano) September 22, 2020
Milano added:
“But I would have if I saw a guy with a gun in my backyard.”
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