$18K donation to fund patrol rifles for police officers

A Newport Beach man donated $18,000 to the Costa Mesa Police

Department to be used to equip police cars with patrol rifles.

Donor Ki Nam has no association with the Police Department; he

just wanted to help out, Sgt. Marty Carver said.

The City Council approved the donation and use of the funds for

purchasing rifles last week.

Police in patrol cars in the city have never had rifles before,

Carver said. The officers will be trained to use the rifles in

January.

Nam is a family friend of city development services director Don

Lamm and wanted to help the city, Lamm said.

“He said, ‘I live in Newport Beach, but I drive through Costa Mesa

a lot and consider Costa Mesa to be home. Does your police department

need anything?’” Lamm said. “It took us a while for us to figure out

what they needed.”

The department will buy 12 semiautomatic rifles and two automatic

rifles for the SWAT team, Carver said.