ATF Publishes List of Weapons Seized from Pasadena Police Officer’s Home, Revealing Lieutenant’s Identity

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives on Sunday published listings of 57 firearms worth more than $50,000 seized by federal agents at the Sierra Madre home of a Pasadena police lieutenant last February.

The listings were included in a national inventory of property seized for federal forfeiture for violations of federal laws. Each item was recorded as having been “seized by the ATF on February 16, 2017 from Vasken Gourdikian in Sierra Madre, CA.”

The document revealed the cache was comprised of 21 rifles and rifle receiver sections, 34 pistols of various calibers and two shotguns.

Last February 16 a city spokesperson announced that a Pasadena police officer had been placed on paid administrative leave after federal agents executed a search warrant at the officer’s home, but neither City Hall nor the Pasadena Police Department have ever officially identified the officer.

Gourdikian’s status apparently remains as “paid administrative leave” subject to the outcome of a Pasadena Police Internal Affairs review and the results of the ATF investigation.

Repeated calls and emails from Pasadena Now to ATF about the search warrant seizures and the investigation of which the seizures were a part were not returned. ATF had never publicly identified the officer or the nature of its investigation.

Lt. Vasken Gourdikian joined the department in 1994. At the time of the search warrant seizures at his home, he was serving as the press information officer for the Pasadena Police Department and was the Adjuntant to Police Chief Phillip Sanchez.

Gourdikian suddenly was no longer available for comment on February 16, and former Police Press Information Officer Tracey Ibarra was re-appointed on a temporary basis on that date.

Beyond the inventory of seized property released today, neither the Department of Justice or the Pasadena Police Department have gone on the record to confirm the subject officer’s identity or the nature of the investigation against him.

On March 31, the head of the ATF’s Los Angeles office sent a memo to Southern California police chiefs and sheriffs saying the agency had found local law enforcement officers buying and reselling guns in what could be violations of federal firearms laws.

The internal memo from Los Angeles Field Division Special Agent in Charge Eric Harden, which was obtained and first reported by the Los Angeles Times, described the situation as an “emerging problem,” and described a “growing trend of law enforcement officials engaging in the business of unlicensed firearms dealing.”

Asked if the memo was connected with the investigation of the Pasadena police officer whose home was searched on Feb. 16, Ginger Colbrun, ATF public information officer, told Pasadena Now that she couldn’t identify “whether an individual is part of an investigation or isn’t a part of an investigation. It’s a matter of Department of Justice policy not to comment on an ongoing investigation.”