A deputy shot and killed a man who allegedly pointed a gun at him at the end of a foot chase in Compton, but an extensive search for the dead man’s firearm had not turned up a weapon as of Friday afternoon.
Relatives of the dead man demanded to know why the firearm had not been located, asking, “Where’s the gun?”
The man died at the scene of the shooting that occurred around 8:30 p.m. Thursday in the area of West Arbutus Street and North Kemp Avenue.
Two deputies encountered Dante Taylor standing on the west sidewalk in the 400 block of Wilmington Avenue and when they tried to speak with him, he allegedly produced a handgun and ran north on Wilmington Avenue, triggering a chase.
Deputy Lisa Jansen of the Sheriff’s Information Bureau said the deputies caught up with the suspect on Arbutus Street, near a wash, where he allegedly pointed the handgun at one of them, drawing fire from one deputy, Jansen said.
A sheriff’s department dog was brought out to assist in the search for the suspect’s handgun in the wash and surrounding area, Jansen said, but no gun had been found as of Friday afternoon.
“They said he pointed … a gun, (and) they tried to retrieve it, but they don’t know where the gun (is) at,” Taylor’s cousin, Monique Desrosiers, told Fox11. “If you shot somebody down, shouldn’t the gun be lying somewhere?”
“Where’s the gun?” said Taylor’s grandmother, Francile Bridges. “I want to know, where’s the gun at?”
The shooting will be investigated by the Sheriff’s Homicide Bureau and Internal Affairs Bureau, the Office of the Inspector General, and the District Attorney’s Office.
Anyone with information on the case was urged to contact the Sheriff’s Homicide Bureau at (323) 890-5500 or, to provide an anonymous tip, Crime Stoppers at (800) 222-TIPS.
— City News Service