The armed 36-year-old man who waved a machete in the middle of a downtown Los Angeles street and was shot by a police officer was identified Monday, authorities said.
Officers were dispatched at 9:14 a.m. Sunday to the area of Figueroa Street and Olympic Boulevard after reports of a man in the street waving a machete and chanting, according to Officer Norma Eisenman, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles Police Department.
Police stated that the call for service indicated that a man had stopped his vehicle in the middle of the intersection, exited, and allegedly began brandishing a machete at pedestrians.
After further investigation, detectives identified the person of interest as Gurpreet Singh, who was given multiple commands to drop the weapon but failed to comply.
At one point during the standoff, Singh allegedly retrieved a water bottle and threw it at the officers moments before entering his vehicle and traveling southbound on Figueroa Street while waving the machete outside the driver’s side window, police said.
“Officers initiated a brief vehicle pursuit during which Singh drove erratically and collided with an officer’s vehicle,” the police department said in a statement.
Singh then stopped near Figueroa and 12th streets, exited his vehicle armed with a machete, and charged at the officers, resulting in officers wounding him with gunfire, police said.
The suspect was wounded by the gunfire and officers rendered aid at the scene, police said. He was taken by ambulance to a hospital where he underwent surgery.
Detectives recovered the two-foot machete and booked it as evidence.
No officers sustained any injuries during the alleged assault or while shots were fired.
The investigation by the LAPD Force Investigation Division continued Monday evening.