I sat next to Rihanna Friday night at the Los Angeles Clippers Game 3 playoff game against the Oklahoma City Thunder.

I am the President of the Los Angeles Police Commission, so I asked her to take a selfie with me wearing LAPD wristbands to show support for our officers. Rihanna took the phone from me and wanted to take the selfie herself!

While she was taking our selfie, she dropped the phone and the screen cracked! The story and photos went viral this weekend with posts on Gawker, The Daily Mail and other sites.

I saw her again this Sunday at Game 4 and told her I wanted to auction the phone off to support the LAPD Foundation and asked her to sign it... and she did, writing, because she broke the phone, "Sorry! I ♥ LAPD. Rihanna." 

Half of the money raised will go towards the LAPD Cadet program crisis. The cadet program needs $240,000 for 300 underserved kids to enroll, attend and graduate from the multi-year program. The Ray Charles foundation puts up over $500,000 a year for 400 cadets, but demand is so great we can now serve 700. The graduation ceremony has 10,000 attend! The next one is in June held at the Galen Center Arena at USC.

The other half of the money raised will go towards the Los Angeles Police Memorial Foundation, to support the families of fallen officers. We have tragically lost five officers since March 7, 2014.

Thank you Rihanna and all of her wonderful fans who have made this story go viral, and for your interest in supporting the Los Angeles Police Foundation.