An investigation was under way Sunday into how a 26-year-old suspect who swung a metal stool at Los Angeles Police officers and tried to take an officer’s gun was shot and killed by an officer in the emergency room at Harbor UCLA Medical Center.
The shooting at the hospital at 1000 W. Carson St., came after a chain of events that started hours earlier with a report of vandalism in a nearby neighborhood, said LAPD Lt. John Jenal.
Officers responded at 8 a.m. Saturday to the 1600 block of West 207th Street when neighbors failed to stop the man from throwing bottles at an apartment complex, Jenal said.
“The suspect attacked officers with punches and kicks and the use of a TASER was unsuccessful,” he said.
The officers subdued the suspect with a carotid restraint, Jenal said..
Both officers and the suspect were injured in the encounter, so the suspect was taken to Harbor UCLA for treatment and the officers were taken to other hospitals, Jenal said.
The suspect was treated in the emergency room at Harbor UCLA and cleared for booking, the lieutenant said.
Officers who did not make the original arrest were removing the suspect’s handcuffs from the gurney to prepare to take him to the LAPD’s Harbor Station.
“He again attacked the officers, swinging a metal stool at the officers,” Jenal said. “They tried a TASER and it was unsuccessful.”
At about 2:30 p.m. the suspect tried to grab one officer’s gun and an officer shot him once in the torso, Jenal said. He was pronounced dead in the ER.
The officers injured in the morning arrest were treated at a hospital and released, he said.
— City News Service