Keegan Allen Robbed at Gunpoint and Knifepoint in West Hollywood, Presses Bass and Newsom on Flock Cameras

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 9, 2026 — The video is hard to watch. Blood runs from Keegan Allen’s forehead down his neck as he stares into his phone camera in a West Hollywood parking lot late Thursday night, out of breath and visibly shaken. “I was just robbed of my watch outside of Laurel Supply,” the 37-year-old actor said in the video, then turned to someone off camera and asked them to call the police. Moments earlier, he said, two masked men had held a gun and a knife on him, struck him in the head, and taken his watch. “They had masks on and they took my watch.”

What happenedNine o’clock in the Laurel Supply parking lot

It was around 9 p.m. Thursday when Allen was approached in the parking lot of Laurel Supply, the upscale grocery store on the 8400 block of Santa Monica Boulevard in West Hollywood, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. Deputies spoke to Allen, “who stated he was approached by two male adults dressed in black clothing,” the department said in a statement to USA Today. One suspect pointed a silver handgun at the victim while the other pointed a knife and demanded the victim’s watch and bracelet. Shortly after, the victim was struck in the face with the handgun. The suspects obtained the victim’s watch and fled the scene in an unknown vehicle.

Allen said in his video that the men hit him in the head before taking the watch: “These two dudes hit me in the head and pointed a gun at me with a knife and then took off.” Security footage Allen included in his post appeared to show the suspects in black hoodies cornering him against his car in the parking lot, with one of them apparently striking him in the head multiple times with the gun, People reported. The LASD confirmed to People that it responded to a robbery call on the 8400 block of Santa Monica Boulevard at approximately 9:05 p.m. A spokesperson for the department told USA Today that deputies were dispatched “regarding robbery call for service” around that time.

Paramedics from the Los Angeles County Fire Department treated Allen at the scene for a laceration to his forehead, and he was not taken to a hospital, according to the sheriff’s office. Early information circulated through the Citizen app identified the stolen watch as a Rolex, The Blast reported; Allen himself referred only to his watch in his account of the robbery. No arrests had been announced as of Friday afternoon.

The aftermath“West Hollywood is not safe anymore”

Allen posted the video to Instagram late Thursday night, and it spread fast. In the caption, he wrote that West Hollywood “is not safe anymore,” said he was robbed at gunpoint and knifepoint by two young men who threatened to kill him over his watch and would have, and closed with “God said no tonight. My life for a watch.” He told his followers he would update them soon.

By later that night, Allen was answering worried commenters. He wrote in a reply that he was “def concussed” and at the hospital, People reported — after paramedics had initially treated him at the scene and left him there. Among those who replied to his post was West Hollywood city council candidate Kyle Brazeal, who wrote that the attack was unacceptable and said he was sorry it had happened.

The camerasAllen’s challenge to Bass and Newsom

That challenge came in the same Instagram caption. Tagging Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and California Gov. Gavin Newsom, Allen wrote: “Let’s hope all these flock cameras that @karenbassla @gavinnewsom and everyone thinks will stop crime can find these very dangerous criminals. God bless,” he wrote in an Instagram post late Thursday, according to the New York Post. It was a direct prod at two Democratic leaders over a surveillance network that has become one of the most fought-over policing tools in California.

Flock Safety, the Atlanta-based company behind the cameras, operates a network of roughly 120,000 AI-powered license-plate readers across 49 states, working with about 5,000 law enforcement agencies nationwide, according to Reuters. In Los Angeles, the network became a political problem this year. In July, the city’s Board of Police Commissioners suspended the LAPD’s use of its Flock cameras, citing concerns about data collection and retention, and the department’s three-year contract with the company expired that month, mynewsla.com reported. Flock operated 138 pole-mounted cameras in Los Angeles.

LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell has called automated license-plate readers “a very valuable investigative tool” for locating violent offenders and stolen vehicles, while adding that the department has a responsibility to make sure any technology it uses carries strong privacy protections, mynewsla.com reported. Critics — including immigrant-rights and civil-liberties advocates — have warned that data collected by the cameras could be shared with federal agencies and used in immigration enforcement. Those fears sharpened after the University of Washington’s Center for Human Rights reported in October 2025 that Flock had tested an information-sharing program letting federal agencies access local license-plate data without the local agencies’ knowledge or consent, according to mynewsla.com.

The backlash has been national. More than 200 cities and counties have dropped Flock since 2021, according to tracking cited by the San Francisco Public Press, including Mountain View — which terminated its contract after discovering hundreds of agencies it had never approved had searched its license-plate data — along with Santa Cruz and Santa Clara County. In August, Mayor Bass went further than the commission, calling for the LAPD to stop using Flock altogether and saying the company had “lost the public’s trust,” the Public Press reported. A recent Reuters/Ipsos poll found Americans split on the cameras: 38 percent support their use in their community, 47 percent oppose it. And on Thursday — the same day Allen was robbed — Reuters reported that Flock plans to cut about 18 percent of its workforce, roughly 270 employees, as opposition to its products mounts.

There is a West Hollywood wrinkle in all of this. While the LAPD was backing away from Flock this summer, West Hollywood’s own city council voted narrowly in July to keep using Flock cameras, with new safeguards, the Beverly Press and Park Labrea News reported. Whether any of those cameras captured Allen’s attackers — the test he publicly set for the network — is now up to the Sheriff’s Department’s investigation.

The response“Egregious,” says the mayor’s office

Bass did respond. The mayor called the armed robbery of Allen “egregious,” according to the New York Post — a notable statement given that, as the Post noted, the mayor’s office and the LAPD do not have jurisdiction in West Hollywood. The city is policed by the Sheriff’s Department, whose West Hollywood station detectives are handling the case; the department’s major crimes bureau is investigating, and the LASD has urged anyone with information to reach out to detectives at 310-855-8850, People reported.

Allen is best known for playing Toby Cavanaugh on Pretty Little Liars during its seven-season run from 2010 to 2017. He later played Liam Walker on The CW’s Walker from 2021 to 2024 and guest-starred in a February episode of ABC’s The Rookie, according to People. He finished his post by telling followers he would share more updates soon — and the investigation, like the debate he started, is still moving.