After his earlier arrest for allegedly holding a knife to a woman’s throat, a suspect Wednesday escaped from authorities and was shot by an officer after a violent SUV carjacking.
The suspect had held a knife to the victim’s throat on Tuesday. On Wednesday he was wounded by an officer when he ran from police who had taken him to County-USC Medical Center for an examination and tried the carjacking.
No officers were injured in the shooting, which occurred Wednesday afternoon in the area of Zonal Avenue and Cummings Street near USC, according to the Los Angeles Police Department.
After being shot, the suspect was again taken to a hospital, where he was in stable condition, LAPD Detective Meghan Aguilar told reporters at the scene.
The female who was driving the SUV was not injured, Sgt. Aguilar said.
It’s unclear if any weapon was found at the scene.
The suspect was originally arrested after Hollenbeck Station officers conducting a follow-up investigation of an unspecified incident about 4:30 p.m. Tuesday in the 5200 block of Ithaca Avenue in El Sereno were directed to an apartment complex, where they encountered the suspect inside an apartment doorway, holding a knife to a female’s throat, Aguilar said.
The female escaped and the suspect surrendered after a standoff, Aguilar said.
He was taken Wednesday, the day after his arrest, to County-USC by a detective and two patrol officers for a medical examination, but broke free and fled. He removed a female from the SUV she was driving and commandeered the vehicle, but was shot by a pursuing officer, Aguilar said.
A report from the scene showed a crashed SUV outside a parking structure bearing a USC banner.
An alert issued by USC in the shooting’s immediate aftermath advised students and others to avoid the area, but an LAPD officer said there was no ongoing threat to the campus.
–City News Service