Days of intense military training exercises at empty buildings have Southern California on edge

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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.” Politics 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 sam...