Days of massive military exercises in empty buildings have Southern California on edge

A series of military exercises taking place in empty buildings across the Southland are scaring residents and scaring neighbors as gunfire rings out in the darkness and soldiers descend from helicopters.

On several nights this week, the sounds of simulated urban warfare erupted in the middle of the night from sleepy parts of Pasadena and Long Beach and from empty shopping malls in the San Gabriel Valley.

As other residents went to sleep, video showed a helicopter thundering through the sky as soldiers jumped onto the roof of an empty hospital in the middle of a tree-lined neighborhood in Pasadena on Wednesday night.

Officials said they were given little notice and had no word on where or when the tests would be held.

“People are trying to sleep,” Pasadena City Councilman Rick Cole said in a video posted to Instagram late Wednesday as training continued in the background. “This will continue for a while and good luck to the people who have to get up and go to work tomorrow morning.”

The operation, at the empty center of St. Luke Medical Center in the 2600 block of East Washington Boulevard, including simulated gunfire, grenades and a military helicopter hovering over the building.

Police were told by the military about the training and asked officials to secure the abandoned hospital months ago, a city spokesman told The Times. But city officials were not briefed on the project, and were unable to notify the public until hours before the training began.

“It’s troubling and disappointing that the federal government won’t give the city leadership information to share with our people, especially since the same area was hit hard by the Eaton fire,” said Pasadena Mayor Victor Gordo.

Asked what the city knew before the tests were conducted, Gordo said the police had been informed about what was happening but had not yet come to its significance. He mentioned that these exercises were held in the places planned to host the Olympic events.

A US military official familiar with the exercise told The Times that the training involved “highly trained soldiers operating in challenging conditions and challenging environments and seeking real life environments.”

“They are not trained in cinder block training centers like other units,” said this police officer who is not authorized to speak to the media on this issue.

Despite notifying the city’s Police Department, elected city officials said they did not receive notification about the training until hours before it was scheduled to begin.

“It was common knowledge,” read a statement from the city. “Minor details were shared with the Police Department. The city notified the public a few hours before work began. The city has no control over the timing of the exercise or the specifics. Our priority was the safety of residents and traffic in the immediate area.”

The notice was sent to residents at 5:30 p.m., and elected council members were notified by text six minutes earlier.

“How did this happen, and how come we didn’t hear about it sooner?” Cole asked. “This was a military game in a residential area that was recently destroyed by a fire that broke out in the middle of the week, at midnight.”

Cole said he questioned why the City Council and the public weren’t notified earlier about the project, which is happening in several Southern California cities this week.

The soldiers trained in Pasadena, the official said, were special operators who trained in Southern California and came to Los Alamitos. It is not uncommon for units to train in defunct malls or abandoned businesses in Los Angeles County.

The official said the helicopter seen at the regional training was from the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, or SOAR.

Cole filmed the training video just outside the hospital and the sounds of simulated gunfire can be heard in the background of the Instagram post.

“We are in the middle of what is usually a quiet residential area,” he said.

In another post before 2 a.m. Thursday, Cole says the gunfire and grenades continued for about 45 minutes. Cole says part of the training was supposed to take place around midnight, but was postponed due to “technical difficulties.”

“I really don’t understand why the US military needs to enter a residential area without notice and set off flash bangs in the middle of the night when people are trying to sleep,” he said in the post. “I understand why people are angry.”

Lisa Derderian, spokeswoman for the city of Pasadena, confirmed that city officials have received several calls asking about the training, including some residents who have asked supervisors and police lieutenants to take responsibility for the event.

City officials in Long Beach and the City of Industry also warned residents there about exercising in their neighborhoods Thursday night, saying the noise could continue until 2 a.m.

Videos posted on Facebook from Long Beach also showed lights and screams from neighbors, as well as the helicopter’s high rotor. Another video showed the helicopter sitting in a dark parking lot, while uniformed soldiers chased the plane and pulled it out.

A police car, with its lights on, could be seen parked nearby.

Irvine police issued a similar warning Wednesday night, warning of loud noise due to training that was expected between 8 p.m. and midnight.

Cole said he is not only concerned about the lack of notice, but that the training was part of a scare tactic from the federal government to California cities.

“Is this part of some pattern, you know, to train for a domestic war or to terrorize a domestic audience?” Cole asked. “Honestly, I don’t have a good answer for that.”

In September last year, while addressing a rare summit of top US military leaders in Quantico, Va., President Trump said he was interested in using US cities as military training grounds.

During his speech, he criticized the Democratic leaders in American cities for their response to the immigration protests. The comments came nearly three months after the president sent National Guard troops to Los Angeles as crowds protested the city’s immigration crackdown.

“Then I told [Secretary of Defense] Pete [Hegseth]”We have to use some of these dangerous cities as training grounds for our troops,” Trump said in a speech.

Pentagon officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment.