A man was shot and critically wounded Thursday in a confrontation with police who responded to a report of a man breaking out storefront windows with a skateboard in Los Angeles’ Miracle Mile area, authorities said.
The officer-involved shooting happened about 8:40 a.m. in the 800 block of South Sycamore Avenue, Los Angeles police Officer Drake Madison said.
Officers were sent to La Brea Avenue and Eighth Street on a report of a person breaking out store windows with a skateboard, Madison said.
About a block away, they saw a man who matched the description of the suspect and told him to stop, but he started fighting with the officers and he was shot, Madison said.
The man was taken to a hospital in critical condition, police said. His name was not immediately released.
LAPD Cmdr. Andrew Smith told reporters at the scene an officer used a Taser on the suspect while in close contact with him, but it failed to disable the man, who was able to gain control of device and zap the officer’s leg.
The officer’s partner, who also was struggling with the suspect, was alerted to what was happening and the officer-involved shooting occurred, Smith said.
Both officers were injured during the struggle, police said.
One suffered a leg burn “consistent with the close contact of a Taser,” according to an LAPD statement. No details were made available about the other officer’s injury.
Both were treated at a clinic and released, police said.
—City News Service