[symple_googlemap title=”Bell fatal shooting” location=” 7100 block of South Atlantic Avenue, Bell, CA” height=”300″ zoom=”16″]
A knife-wielding domestic violence suspect who advanced toward law enforcement personnel was killed in an officer-involved shooting in a convenience store in Bell, sheriff’s officials said Friday.
No law enforcement officers were injured in the shooting, which occurred about 8:20 a.m. Thursday in the 7100 block of South Atlantic Avenue, near Florence Avenue and the border with Cudahy, said Deputy Guillermina Saldana of the Sheriff’s Information Bureau.
Paramedics took the 37-year-old suspect — later identified as Vinson Lee Ramos — to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead, Saldana said.
“Homicide detectives have learned that Bell Police Department personnel and East Los Angeles Station (sheriff’s) personnel received 911 calls regarding a domestic dispute at a local convenience store,” Saldana said.
The man had argued with and assaulted a woman, who had a child with her, at a fast food restaurant in the 4500 block of Florence Avenue and then walked next door to a convenience store, where the dispute continued, Saldana said.
Bell Police Department officers were dispatched to the location, along with one deputy.
“When Bell police officers arrived, they encountered a man armed with a knife,” Saldana said. “The man refused to comply with the officers’ verbal commands. He advanced toward the officers with the knife and an officer- involved shooting occurred.”
Relatives of the suspect told ABC7 that the woman Ramos was arguing with was his girlfriend and that the child was her son.
The suspect’s aunt told the station that the shooting “just seemed unnecessary.”
“We are grieving and we don’t understand why three officers shot at him,” she said.
Bell Police Lt. Bill Cotter told ABC7, “The officers are forced to make a split-second decision based on the facts that are presented to them at that time Something about the suspect’s activity or his behavior necessitated that they did what they did.”
—City News Service