Three Los Angeles Police Department officers were shot Wednesday night and a suspect was dead following a confrontation in the city’s Lincoln Heights neighborhood, police officials said.
The incident occurred around 6 p.m. on North Broadway at Mission Road. All three officers were expected to survive.
Officers with the Hollenbeck station were called around 3:50 p.m. to the 3800 block of Broadway on Wednesday afternoon to search for a parolee at large, LAPD Assistant Chief Al Labrada said Wednesday night at a news conference held outside L.A. County-USC Medical Center.
Officers found the suspect, who they said refused to comply with commands, and a K-9 unit was requested from the Metropolitan Division.
Officers used gas on the suspect, who still did not comply with their commands, Labrada said.
“At one point during the search,” he said, “the suspect exited and fired at the officers, wounding three … who are now listed in stable condition here just behind me.”
All of the officers who were shot were part of the Metropolitan Division’s K-9 unit.
After they were hit, other officers pulled them from the line of fire, law enforcement sources said. They were taken to the hospital by ambulances.
One officer was shot in the arm, another in the leg and a third was hit in the torso but his body armor likely deflected the round leaving him with shrapnel injuries, according to law enforcement sources.
Labrada said all three of the officers were able to speak and that their families were at the hospital.
At some point during the incident, an unknown number of officers fired at the suspect, Labrada said.
The suspect was confirmed dead Wednesday night by police officials several hours after the officers were shot. He was identified by authorities on Thursday as Jonathan Magana.
The cause and manner of his death were not disclosed.
The LAPD’s force investigation division is investigating the shooting by police, Labrada said, while the Robbery-Homicide Division is investigating the shooting that injured the officers.
“I deeply appreciate their service, and let them know that their city stands with them,” Mayor Karen Bass said at the news conference. “And I very much look forward to their recovery. My heart goes out to the officers’ families who tonight got the phone call, or the knock on the door, that they dread every day that their loved ones go on duty.”
Magana had a lengthy criminal record and in January was charged with battery on a police officer and possession of a firearm by a prohibited person in connection with an incident late last year, according to court records and law enforcement sources.
In February 2020, Magana was convicted of two felony counts of robbery connected to incidents that occurred in 2019. He was sentenced to 4 years in prison for the first count and a year in county jail for the second count. In 2014, he was convicted for selling methamphetamines.
In the aftermath of the shooting, officers, including those in full tactical gear, swarmed the Lincoln Heights site, where blockades had been erected.
A helicopter was broadcasting to residents to remain inside and lock their doors. A special weapons and tactics team with armored vehicles arrived at the scene shortly before 8 p.m.
LAPD Chief Michel Moore said on Twitter that he was monitoring the night’s events.
Sets of drones and helicopters swirled around an empty Lincoln Park Recreation Center as officers shut down parts of Valley Boulevard near the active crime scene.
A handful of joggers still ran and worked out in sweats near a children’s playground that was closed for remodeling.
One runner said she was turned around by police and told to head to the easternmost end of the park.
The suspect must have been white or BLM would be rioting.
And the Dems still want to defund the police. I feel for them. I wish they would all quit simultaneously for a few months so the progressives would become the victims instead of us. Their policies scream anti-America, and they need to leave this country and go somewhere else. The bunch of malcontents are all the product of Soros, Besos, Zuckerberg, Dorsey, Gates and all of the other elite pieces of crap.
Prays for the officers. I don’t care what color he was, the end result is one way to prevent recidivism.
A criminal who violated the law by having a firearm. Now there is a surprise.
Anyone notice that the number of “ghost” guns are appearing on the streets in violation of law? That means the criminals are producing their own guns and it also means the government attempt to stop gun use by criminals has been thwarted. (they want them they’ll produce them, and or get smuggled guns)
When do the idiots in Sacramento (you know the democrats you voted into office) finally realize in today’s high tech environment the bad guys will always have lethal force?
Hopefully the good guys will be back on the job soon.