March 9, 2023 One LAPD K-9 officer was shot in the stomach, another shot in the arm and a third wounded in the leg by a gunman who barricaded himself in a shed and exchanged gunfire before dying.
By Hunter Lee Source The Whittier Daily News, Calif. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
Three Los Angeles police officers were shot and injured on Wednesday evening in the Lincoln Heights area and a suspect was temporarily barricaded in a shed, police said.
Police Chief Michel Moore later said all three officers were hospitalized and were reported to be stable; and LAPD officials said the suspect was eventually confirmed to be dead.
LAPD Officer Norma Eisenman confirmed the suspect, a male, had been barricaded. SWAT resources were called to the scene in LAPD’s Hollenbeck area in northeast Los Angeles. Assistant Chief Alfred Labrada later said that officers had exchanged gunfire with the barricaded gunman who eventually died.
Cmdr. Stacy Spell said she could not clarify whether the suspect died from police gunfire or from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, or what type of firearm the suspect was carrying.
Reports from the scene said police had arrived around 4:30 p.m. at the North Mission Road/North Broadway area regarding a suspect and shots were fired some two hours later.
A perimeter was set up near North Mission and North Broadway. Broadcast reports from the scene around 7:50 p.m. showed an LAPD helicopter was announcing to residents about the situation, telling them to stay indoors with their doors locked.
KCAL reported a narcotics unit was conducting surveillance on an extortion suspect when the shooting occurred. One officer was shot in an arm, one in leg and one in the stomach, the station reported. Labrada clarified officers were looking for a parolee and encountered a non-compliant individual, so a chemical agent was fired at the individual.
“While conducting their search for the parolee, they had him in a location inside a shed, they gave him commands to exit and he didn’t comply with those commands,” Spell said. “At that point, it was determined the officers would deploy a chemical agent in an effort to try to get the suspect to come out peacefully.”
“Unfortunately, that suspect responded to that chemical agent by opening the shed and opening fire on those officers,” Spell said. After the shooting, the area was flooded with police including SWAT teams and a few hours later the gunman was located dead in the shed.
All three wounded officers are K-9 officers with the LAPD’s elite Metropolitan Division, Labrada said.
In a Tweet, LAPD’s Central Division said: “This is every law enforcement’s nightmare. We ask for your thoughts and prayers for our injured officers.”
After the shooting, LAPD commanders put the department on a temporary citywide tactical alert. That makes more resources available by keeping officers on patrol after the end of their scheduled shifts, Eisenman said.
With the crime scene cordoned off, police for a time were rerouting traffic away from the scene as far back as Valley Boulevard, and had closed Lincoln Park Avenue from Broadway to Mission.
Despite the order to remain indoors, there were several curious residents trying to find out what was going on.
Laura Flores, 53, and her husband Lorenzo heard the commotion begin from their apartment building and went outside to see what was happening.
The two live off Parkside Avenue, a few blocks from the barricade location.
“We heard all these helicopters outside and they were shouting orders to stay inside but we wanted to see what was happening,” Laura Flores said. “Then it was like all these explosions and we could see smoke.”
The couple moved to the neighborhood about five years ago and said in the time they’ve been here they’ve never seen the area in such a panic.
“Everyone in our building was wondering what’s going on,” she said. “We thought it was another mass shooting or something.”
Cameron Byles, 33, another resident off Parkside Avenue, said there been a “fair amount” of shootings in the area over the years but he’d never seen a police response like this.
“My whole apartment was shaking from the helicopters,” Byles said. “There was a few loud bangs and then smoke coming out over the buildings.”
“All the dogs were going crazy, man, it was loud as hell,” he said.
Mayor Karen Bass met with two of the injured officers at LA County/USC Medical Center. She said they were “strong” and asked about their colleagues while hospitalized.
“We stand with them. Our hearts go out to them for their speedy recovery and also for the trauma that their families are facing right now,” Bass said. “We know that (when) officers … go to work that their families are left in fear, hoping that they won’t get the phone call that these three families got tonight.”
“The shooting of three (LAPD) officers in Lincoln Heights is a reminder of the risks and sacrifices our police face every day,” Councilman Bob Blumenfield tweeted.
The shooting happened in a mostly residential neighborhood tucked between the 110, 10 and 5 freeways.