2 LAPD officers injured during shootout with robbery suspect

By means of Libor Jany

Source Los Angeles Times

LOS ANGELES – Two Los Angeles police officers were injured and a suspect was taken into custody Friday evening after a shootout that broke out in South LA while officers were investigating a possible robbery, authorities said.

The incident occurred Friday around 9 p.m. when the two officers from the LAPD’s Southeast Division responded to a report of a robbery in the 9200 block of Central Avenue, police said.

At some point during the ensuing encounter, the officers exchanged fire with an armed suspect, who then fled the area, police said. It was not immediately clear whether the suspect was struck.

A radio call for help prompted a massive police response — including officers from neighboring divisions on the scene — who are located on the border of Florence-Firestone, an unincorporated neighborhood north of Watts. Officers with police K9s searched the area well into the night; The suspect was found and arrested after several hours, police said.

The two unnamed officers were taken to a hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. Police did not reveal where they were hit, but a law enforcement source told The Times that preliminary information suggests one of the officers suffered an abrasion to the leg, while the other was hit in the hand by shrapnel.

Both officers were conscious and talking when they arrived at the hospital, a law enforcement source told The Times on Friday. They were released from the hospital on Saturday morning.

LA police data shows that LAPD officers have opened fire 24 times so far this year, compared to 32 during the same period in 2023.

The Southeast is one of the police departments in the city seeing an increase in robberies, according to a recent crime briefing by LAPD Interim Chief Dominic Choi.

In July, a Southeast officer was injured in another police shootout in the divisional area, in which a man reportedly opened fire on a police unit with a machine gun. The man was later arrested and… is accused of attempted murder.

____________

Visit latimes.com.

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.