A suspect being chased by Los Angeles police crashed his vehicle and ran into a Trader Joe’s store and opened fire, killing one woman.
July 22 (UPI) — A suspect chased by Los Angeles police crashed his vehicle and ran into a Trader Joe’s store and opened fire, killing one woman as the gunman barricaded himself inside.
After a tense four-hour stand-off Saturday, Los Angeles police tweeted: „We have successfully taken the suspect into custody without incident. The situation remains fluid as officers move forward clearing the location.“
At approximately 6:40 p.m. in the Silver Lake section of the city, five hostages departed with the suspect in handcuffs.
Erlier, he had crashed into a pole at the store. A 20-year-old woman was taken to the hospital in fair condition, removed from a vehicle involved in the crash, a Los Angeles Fire Department spokeswoman said.
The suspect „jumped out of the car, and it looked like he shot some rounds off when he got out of the car,“ Dan Zito, who said he was only feet away from the crash, said to KNBC-TV . „And (the police) returned some fire at him, but he ran straight in [to the Trader Joe’s].“
Police said the suspect, who is in his late teens, shot his grandmother and a younger woman earlier in the day elsewhere. Around 1:30 p.m., police spotted the suspect driving his grandmother’s car in the Hollywood area and a pursuit began.
Aerial video showed officers carrying a injured person of the store and carrying children out from the store to safety. Other videos showed an employee dragging a person out of the store and employees escaping on a rope ladder outside a window.
Six patients, including a 12-year-old boy, were transported to a hospital. They all were listed in „fair“ condition.
Lynne Westafer, a KCBS-TV news producer, was one of those people inside the store. The visibly upset suspect asked to speak to his „granny“ several times.
„He did not seem high on drugs, to me,“ Westafer said. „He was shot, and there was a woman who […] really worked to try to keep him calm and sort of, almost advocate on his behalf.
„He seemed like he might have been in shock, actually, ‚cause he was very cold, and they kept giving him, you know, sweatshirts and things like that.“
Shoppers described on social media the scene of gunfire, saying people were running for cover and hiding as the gunman ran into the store.
One shopper, who sought cover behind a wall, said a man opened fire and officers fired back.
President Donald Trump tweeted he was watching the situation „very closely,“ and that the LAPD was working alongside federal law-enforcement officials.
