Police kill man outside Palm Springs casino

Law enforcement authorities shot and killed a man outside a downtown Palm Springs casino Tuesday night after the man, wanted on felony charges, pulled a weapon on officers, officials said today.

The gunfire erupted shortly after 6 p.m. and forced patrons and employees of the Spa Resort and Casino to duck for cover. A casino slot machine technician was hit in the leg by a stray bullet that shattered a glass door in a lounge area, officials said.

The incident began when the wanted man, whose name was not released, left the building with a female companion and authorities tried to take him into custody. State and local law enforcement officers had been waiting outside to apprehend him, said Palm Springs Police Sgt. Mitch Spike.

Spike said the pair ran, trying first to dart into a waiting taxicab. The man then struggled with a Riverside County sheriff’s deputy and dove into a nearby row of decorative hedges, he said. With officers in pursuit, the man ran from the bushes and splashed through a fountain area. At that point, the suspect turned on officers with a handgun, Spike said.

Five officers fired their weapons at the man, Spike said. Authorities are still investigating whether he also shot at officers, which officers’ gunfire struck him and where or how many times he was hit, Spike said.

“The officers did what they had to do,” Spike said.

The suspect died at the scene.

Spike said a Palm Springs police officer involved in the shooting has been placed on administrative leave until the criminal investigation to determine whether the shooting was justified is completed. Two deputies from the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department fugitive warrant team were also involved in the shooting and placed on administrative leave, said Jerry Franchville, an investigator with the department. The other two officials involved in the shooting were agents with the California Department of Justice, said spokesman Gareth Lacy. They have not been placed on leave, Lacy said.

Nancy Conrad, spokeswoman for the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians, which owns the casino, said the wounded employee was recovering and had asked to return to work today.

“It certainly was kind of a freak accident that this occurred,” Conrad said, describing how security guards pulled casino patrons to the floor and ordered everyone to duck for cover as the shots were fired. The shooting occurred next to a lounge area where a band had just begun to play, Conrad said.

Officials from a sheriff’s department task force and the state Department of Justice alerted Palm Spring police about 4 p.m. that the wanted man was at the casino, Spike said.

The area where the incident took place is an ornamental outdoor spot where people do not congregate: “Not a whole lot of people really saw what happened,” Spike said. “This kind of stuff can happen anywhere.”

Spike refused to say what charges the man was wanted on. But Lacy, the state Justice Department spokesman, said the man was known to have had previous weapons-related altercations with law enforcement, Lacy said.

susannah.rosenblatt@latimes.com