1 suspect killed after L.A. officers are fired upon by AK-47



Los Angeles Police Department SWAT officers continue to search door to door Thursday at scene of fatal shoot out.

Another suspect is wounded and two others remain at large. No officers were injured.
By Richard Winton, Susannah Rosenblatt and Andrew Blankstein, Los Angeles Times Staff Writers

4:31 PM PST, February 21, 2008

Los Angeles police shot and killed one man and wounded another after a wild incident in northeast Los Angeles that began with a drive-by shooting that threatened a toddler and culminated with suspects firing on officers with an AK-47 rifle, officials said.

Two suspects remained at large, and the neighborhood, including several schools, was still on lockdown hours after the initial shooting took place shortly before noon.

One suspect is believed to be barricaded inside an apartment building, police said. By late afternoon, officers using police dogs began going door to door in search of the man. Another suspect apparently fled the area in a vehicle, officials said.

The assault on police took place after officers attempted to stop a car similar to one involved in a drive-by shooting that took place about 10 minutes earlier, police said. In that incident, a shooter or shooters fired more than a dozen rounds at a man carrying a 2-year old child, police said. The victim in that shooting was critically injured and taken to a hospital. The child also was taken to the hospital but was not wounded, authorities said.

After leaving the scene of the drive-by, people in the car began firing their weapons indiscriminately, said LAPD Deputy Chief Sergio Diaz.

Plainclothes officers in the area near the intersection of Drew Street and Estara Avenue heard the gunfire and tried to stop the car. Three of the men in the car jumped out of the vehicle with weapons and fired on officers, Diaz said. The officers then returned gunfire, fatally shooting one suspect and seriously wounding another, he said.

"One of the suspects opened fire on the officers with an AK-47," said Cmdr. Andrew Smith, supervisor of the Los Angeles Police Department's Central Bureau, which includes the area where the incident occurred.

No officers were injured in the attack, police said.

Assistant Chief Jim McDonnell said plainclothes officers in the area had gone to the location, which he described as a base of operations for Avenues gang members, because they believed that possible suspects in the drive-by shooting would soon return.

"There's been a rash, an uptick, of shootings in the past few weeks," McDonnell said of the neighborhood, which is just north of the junction of the Golden State and Glendale freeways and densely packed with apartment buildings, small bungalows and warehouses.

Within minutes of reports of officers being shot at, a massive police presence had descended on the area. Los Angeles SWAT officers were in position by 1 p.m., authorities said. The location is only a few blocks from the LAPD's Northeast Station on San Fernando Road.

More than four hours after the confrontation began, a body covered by a white sheet was still visible in the street. Neighbors hung out in frontyards and looked down from balconies on the scene, some snapping photographs.

Police said they had recovered at least one handgun at the scene, in addition to the assault weapon.

Earlier, police officials said that people in two vehicles had fired at each other while driving, but authorities later said that all four male suspects were traveling in the same car.

Residents said they heard multiple gunshots earlier in the day. They said one home in the area had been a subject of frequent police activity. On Wednesday night, one neighbor said, police officers went to that house. Then, he said, there were more problems today.

The 35-year old man, who lives in the apartment building next to house and asked not to be named because of fear of reprisals, said he first heard shots today about noon.

"It's been happening since last night," he said. "It's been getting worse and worse every single day -- bad the last two years."

He said that when he heard the gunfire today he took cover in his apartment.

"Everybody gets scared when you hear shots," he said. "Everybody gets down."

Juan Soto, who also lives in the block, said violence there had grown common.

"This kind of incident happens about once a month," said Soto, 31. "This is not the first time."

Others said the shootout and police activity had unnerved them. Several dozen residents were evacuated from their homes by police and stood waiting under a nearby carport. Several schools -- Aragon Elementary, Cal Charter, Fletcher Elementary and Washington Irving Middle School -- were on lockdown after the shootings, authorities said.

Norma Rodriguez, 45, said she was turned back when she tried to pick up her son from Fletcher Elementary School.

"We can't go anywhere," said Rodriguez, who lives in Eagle Rock and works as a private care giver. "I'm worried. Right now at this point, I know he's inside the school, but I don't want him to be scared. There are police cars everywhere."



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