Son of Pepperdine president arrested for threatening family

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Chris Benton, the 27-year-old son of Pepperdine University president Andrew K. Benton, was arrested Thursday on the university's Malibu campus for alleged threats made against his family.

The son of Pepperdine University President Andrew K. Benton was arrested Thursday by L.A. County Sheriffs on the university’s Malibu campus after alleged threats made against his family, according to a press release from the university. Chris Benton, 27, was taken into custody around 11 a.m. Thursday, one day after making threats against his family, said Los Angeles County sheriff’s spokesman Steve Whitmore according to the Los Angeles Times.

Whitmore also told the L.A. Times Benton was booked on suspicion of being a convicted felon in possession of a handgun and in possession of ammunition after authorities found a gun they believe Benton discarded on a nearby hillside and the ammunition in his car, Whitmore said.

“This morning LA County sheriffs arrested Chris Benton for threats he made against his family,” Pepperdine spokesman Jerry Derloshon told The Malibu Times. “Serious enough that this arrest has been made.”

Derloshon said he did not know what precipitated the incident.

Andrew Benton released a statement to the Pepperdine student newspaper, The Graphic, later on Thursday.

“We love our son and, perhaps, we love him even more as a consequence of the many challenges he has faced in his life,” Benton said. “He has made a number of harmful decisions, especially those emerging from experience with drugs and poor choices in friends. We don’t know exactly how we arrived at this point, but we are a family and we will work through it. We hope this present situation is the beginning of a new path, and we pray fervently to that end. “

Chris Benton has been reportedly living with his parents since an April incident in which he was the last known person to see 25-year-old Katie Wilkins before Wilkins died of an apparent heroin overdose. Surveillance footage showed Benton getting into Wilkins’ car at McDonald’s on Pacific Coast Highway the night before she died. Police unsuccessfully attempted to question Benton, but he reportedly entered a drug rehabilitation facility and then went to live with his parents.