A man was pistol-whipped while trying to sell two Hoverboard electric scooters and got into a shootout with the two supposed would-be buyers, wounding one at a supermarket parking in Bellflower, authorities said Monday
The attack on the seller was reported in the parking lot of a Stater Brothers supermarket at 17220 Lakewood Blvd. at 9:20 p.m. Sunday, said Lt. Matthew Vander Horck of the sheriff’s Lakewood Station.
The victim had made arrangements to sell two Hoverboards to individuals he did not know, Vander Horck said. When they met and he was talking to one of them, the other pistol-whipped the back of his head, he said.
The suspect facing the victim pointed a handgun at him. The victim was an off-duty security guard who pulled out his own handgun, the lieutenant said.
“Shots were fired (by both men) and one suspect was shot in the neck,” he said.
The suspect who had pistol-whipped the victim picked up the other suspect’s handgun and fled in a dark sedan, Vander Horck said.
The victim and the wounded suspect were taken by paramedics to a hospital, the lieutenant said.
The victim suffered lacerations and a head injury and remained in the hospital this morning, Vander Horck said. The wounded suspect now in custody was identified as 18-year-old Semaj James, who had a flesh wound in his neck.
—City News Service