Man shot and killed by LAPD officers in Wilshire Center area
Police were responding to a call about an armed assault at a drugstore. The suspect fled; a spokeswoman says the officers believed the man was armed. He was not.
Los Angeles police fatally shot an unidentified man Tuesday night after responding to a radio call of an armed assault at a Wilshire Center drugstore.
Officers from the Rampart Division approached the man at the Rite Aid on Vermont Avenue and spoke with him before he fled, said Officer Kate Lopez, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles Police Department. Officers noticed the man had a black object in his waistband, she said.
The man repeatedly reached for his waistband while he led police on a short foot chase to New Hampshire and 3rd streets. There, two officers shot him after he reached again for the black object, Lopez said. The shooting happened shortly after 7 p.m.; the man died later at a hospital.
Police believed the man was armed at the time but later discovered the black object was a cellphone and that he was unarmed, Lopez said. The officers, whose names were not released, were not hurt.
Abdulrahim and Wagner are Times staff writers.
raja.abdulrahim@latimes.com
james.wagner@latimes.com
