A shooting suspect who attempted to run from Los Angeles Police Department officers was shot and killed by an officer in an unincorporated area in Southeast Los Angeles early Friday.
Officers from the LAPD’s Southeast Division responded to a shots fired call at 12:58 a.m. Friday at the intersection of West 115th Street and South Vermont Avenue. Officers found a man said to be in his 40s at a Mobil gas station suffering from a gunshot wound to the abdomen.
The suspect was located minutes later, but ran from the officers. They caught up to him at 111th Street and Van Buren Avenue, where an officer opened fire at the suspect, an LAPD spokesman told City News Service.
The suspect, identified as Eliar Real Hernandez, was struck by gunfire and pronounced dead at the scene by Los Angeles Fire Department personnel.
“Hernandez was walking on the sidewalk while holding a handgun pointed at his head. One of the officers issued multiple verbal commands in an effort to gain compliance; however, Hernandez failed to comply and subsequently turned toward the officers, resulting in an officer-involved shooting,” the police department said in a statement.
A handgun was recovered, police said. No officers were injured.
Capt. Mike Bland, an LAPD spokesman, said body-worn and other cameras as well as statements from officers and the victims would be obtained.
“We don’t know what transpired, what the relationship is between the two,” he said, adding that investigators nonetheless believe the gas station shooting involved the dead suspect.
The wounded victim was taken to a hospital and was in stable condition, according to the LAPD, whose Force Investigation Division will conduct an investigation.