[symple_googlemap title=”Gun Suicide” location=”400 block of East 138th Street, Los Angeles, CA” height=”300″ zoom=”15″]
Two friends are dead after a struggle over a gun led to an accidental shooting and apparent suicide on a Willowbrook street Sudnay.
The shootings were reported at 1 a.m. in the 400 block of East 138th Street, said Deputy Crystal Hernandez of the Sheriff’s Headquarters Bureau.
Both victims were hanging out with other people in front of a residence, said Deputy Don Walker of the Sheriff’s Headquarters Bureau. One man pulled out a handgun and a second man tried to disarm him, according to witness statements given to deputies.
A brief struggle began over the gun, it was fired and a bullet hit the second man in his upper torso, Walker said. The man who had first produced the gun then aimed it at himself and fired.
“One victim was pronounced dead at the scene and the second victim was transported to a local hospital where he was pronounced dead,” Hernandez said.
A handgun was recovered at the scene, Walker said. No one else was injured.
Coroner’s Lt. Larry Dietz identified Dominique Barnett, 24, as the man who died at the scene from an apparent suicide and Jerrod Taylor, 23, as the other gunshot victim. Both resided in Los Angeles, he said.
Family members told reporters the two men were friends who knew one another for over a decade.
Sheriff’s homicide Detective Steven Lankford told reporters at the scene that the first shooting appeared to have been accidental.
— City News Service