Police said on Thursday that a Los Angeles Police Department bomb squad cordoned off a shopping strip a short distance from the Hollywood venue for the upcoming Oscars show where a man emerged from his car with a propane tank after driving recklessly in the area. The man told police who stopped him that he also had two canisters of nitrous oxide, a non-flammable gas also known as “laughing gas,” and was detained while the bomb squad was called to investigate the situation. Police on the scene said bomb disposal technicians have detonated the items in question.
