Police kill man in gun battle on 10 Freeway in East L.A.; freeway closed for hours
Monterey Park police officers shot and killed a man in a gun battle Friday morning on the 10 Freeway in East Los Angeles, shutting down traffic in both directions into Friday night and causing a major traffic backup, authorities said.
Police tried to pull over a white BMW they said was linked to a March 14 robbery in Los Angeles when the suspect began to shoot at officers, prompting the fatal interaction. The incident began shortly after 10 a.m.
When officers attempted to pull the driver over, he fled, and a police pursuit began, authorities said. Police pursued the vehicle westbound on the 10 Freeway from Atlantic Boulevard to around Campus Road.
The suspect began to shoot at officers with a semiautomatic handgun from inside his vehicle, according to Sgt. Arlene Chaidez with the Monterey Park Police Department. The driver’s car became disabled near the center divider of the freeway, and the suspect got out and tried to run away, still firing at officers, she said.
After a police killing, law enforcement agencies across California have been trained to keep families in the dark in order to gather information used to protect their department.
Three Monterey Park officers fired back at the suspect and struck him, Chaidez said. Police provided aid to the man until paramedics with the Los Angeles County Fire Department arrived, but he died at the scene, according to police.
Detectives with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department were investigating the shooting. The Monterey Park Police Department was leading the investigation.
As officers investigated the shooting, the freeway remained closed in both directions for about 10 hours.
A man was shot after a confrontation with California Highway Patrol officers along an onramp to the 405 in Hawthorne.
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