LOS ANGELES, Calif. — Metro's top security official was fired two days after she filed a report with the agency's inspector general's office, her attorney said.

Gina Osborn, a former FBI agent who was the agency's first chief safety officer, "was summarily terminated by [Chief Executive] Stephanie Wiggins," said her attorney, Marc R. Greenberg.

The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority said it does not comment on personnel issues. In a brief note sent to board members and their staff on Wednesday, Wiggins said that Osborn was "no longer with the agency."

"We will begin the recruitment efforts for the Chief Safety Officer position immediately," Wiggins said in the email. Ken Hernandez, deputy chief safety officer, will serve in her place in the interim.

"Ms. Osborn has rights that protect her from this type of unjustified employment actions, and we are evaluating her litigation options against Ms. Wiggins," said Greenberg, who worked alongside Osborn when she was at the FBI and he was at the U.S. attorney's office. He said he is looking into a class-action lawsuit.

Inspector General Karen Gorman said she could not comment on pending reports.

The firing comes at a crucial moment when the department is still struggling to improve security, lure back pre-pandemic customers and burnish its image ahead of the 2028 Olympic Games, which officials want to make car-free.

Last week a man with an airsoft gun hijacked a Metro bus, and the transit system has been tarred with news reports of random crimes, though data show that violent crime on the system has been ticking downward.

Osborn was hired in 2022, overseeing safety and law enforcement. Her attorney said the agency "has seen an increase in ridership and a drop in crime thanks to her efforts."

She was tasked with reducing crime as the agency was emerging from the COVID-19 pandemic and found itself with a large homeless population that used the trains as shelters. She pushed to increase the visibility of police, sheriff's deputies and Metro's own officers in a bid to reduce crime that had jumped as drug use grew rampant.

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