Hollywood Machete Man Sentenced to 16 Months

A 29-year-old man pleaded no contest Monday to threatening his Hollywood neighbors with a machete and was sentenced to 16 months in state prison.

Oliviero Bozzi entered his plea to one count each of making criminal threats and obstructing an officer in performance of his duty. Two related counts were dismissed.

The night of May 7, after making the threats, Bozzi barricaded himself in his apartment in the 1700 block of North Fuller Avenue, police said.

At one point, Bozzi stood shirtless on his fifth-floor balcony and threw a machete into a ground-floor pool while screaming at police to shoot him. After more than six hours of waiting, as some residents were evacuated and traffic on Hollywood Boulevard was shut down, SWAT officers fired tear gas into the apartment to force Bozzi out.

He has remained jailed on $145,000 bail since his arrest.

At an earlier hearing, Bozzi was found competent to stand trial.   

-City News Service