This is Lady who stuck large machete into door of Kardashians clothing shop DASH after waving it at me and other reporters… @CBSLA
A woman reportedly walked into the Kardashian family’s boutique in West Hollywood and held the cashier at gunpoint Thursday. Some time after doing so, the suspect returned to the store with a machete and threatened those outside the store. Nobody was hurt during the incident, which hasn’t been described by police as a robbery.
Authorities say that the incident was reported at around 11 a.m. local time at the DASH store located at 8420 Melrose Avenue. Law enforcement told TMZ that the female suspect walked into the store and “ranted” about Cuba by saying phrases such as “Free Cuba” and, “Stay away from Cuba” while pointing a revolver at a store employee.
“The woman then started knocking stuff off the counter and pointed the revolver again at the cashier and then just left the store,” the TMZ report says, but things didn’t end there.
Once news of the incident was reported, news photographers arrived on scene and recorded the same woman returning to the store some time later. She was armed with a machete and allegedly threatened reporters who gathered outside the store.
The unidentified woman was wearing a bandanna and appeared to have a Prisoner of War/Missing in Action T-shirt on underneath a sweater that had numerous skulls.
Witnesses say the woman shouted, “Don’t mess with the Castro family” as she waved the weapon. Nobody was hurt after the ordeal, and the suspect stuck the knife into the DASH door after threatening them and fleeing the scene.
Watch the woman waving the knife below:
WATCH: Machete-wielding woman screams ‘Don’t mess with the Castro family’ outside DASH store t.co/HD5BVQIPSF
Lady waving machete just stuck it in the door of the Kardashians store on Melrose… threatened camera crews and reporters too. @CBSLA
Police are looking through surveillance tapes and have launched a full investigation, but the woman hasn’t yet been caught. Law enforcement told TMZ that witnesses saw the woman get into a taxi and leave, and they’re still on the hunt for her.
DASH was founded in 2006 by Kourtney, Kim and Khloe Kardashian with its first location being in Calabasas, California. It was later relocated to West Hollywood in 2012, where Thursday’s incident took place.
The boutique is often featured on Keeping Up with the Kardashians, with Kim saying the initial plan for the reality show was to focus more on the store to drive business.
The Kardashians opened a second store in Miami Beach, Florida in 2009, and a third one was opened in SoHo in Manhattan in 2010, though that closed in December 2016.
The woman’s motive isn’t known, though the Kardashians did travel to Cuba in 2016 while recording their reality show. Their appearance didn’t please many Cubans, with Florida Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen accusing the family of portraying the wrong image of the country.
“Playing a role in making Cuba a fun, no-worries destination is nothing but a cruel trick on the Cuban people,” Ros-Lehtinen said to the Los Angeles Times. “The Kardashians are taking lots of selfies in Havana, but are they taking stock of the reality on the streets they walk on?”
In a recap of the episode on the show, Jezebel wrote that the Kardashians portrayed “every stereotype in Cuba” with the visit.
