“The department was informed of allegations of domestic violence against Larry Elder,” an LAPD spokesman told CNN, but said no further details about the allegations will be made public “due to the confidential nature of investigations into domestic violence “.
Police said in a statement to CNN that nothing would be made public until “the allegations could be thoroughly investigated and filed with the district attorney’s office for consideration.”
The allegations come from an alleged 2015 incident described on CNN by then-Elder’s fiancée and former employee Alexandra Datig.
“Larry Elder brandished a gun in conversation with me during our breakup. He checked to see if his gun was loaded,” Datig told CNN in an interview earlier this month that occurred before she reported police to the accusations.
Elder’s campaign did not respond to a request from CNN to comment on the LAPD investigation.
Elder had previously denied the allegations in a statement issued through his campaign.
“I have never brandished a weapon on anyone,” he wrote in the statement. “I grew up in South Central; I know exactly how destructive that kind of behavior is. It’s not me, and everyone who knows me knows it’s not me.”
Datig did not respond to additional requests for comment Thursday.
Datig, a registered Republican, runs Front Page Index, a conservative political news portal. He has supported former San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer, a Republican, in the withdrawal contest.
Datig told CNN earlier this month that she is “horrified” by Elder’s candidacy, saying she is “really worried that Larry Elder as governor will be a disaster.”
He added that Elder has “no qualifications to deal with a crisis. California cannot afford to make that mistake.”
When asked if he fears his decision to speak publicly about Elder would raise questions about his motivations, Datig replied, “If Larry had been a smart candidate, he would have picked up the phone and called me and said, “Will you support me as governor? Why wouldn’t you? “
When CNN pointed out that it looks like he wouldn’t have supported Elder if he had called her, Datig said, “I don’t know. I don’t know. But I think he showed a sign of great disrespect for not doing that. “.