LOS ANGELES – A homicide suspect livestreamed on Facebook as he traded gunfire with police, eventually shooting a Los Angeles SWAT officer before a police round struck him, a law enforcement official said.
The official was not authorized to discuss an ongoing investigation and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.
Both the suspect and officer are expected to survive, Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck said Thursday.
The official said the video , which captured at least part of the encounter, showed the suspect shouting as he pointed a handgun at officers with gunshots ringing around him. At one point he yells that the officers are “about to kill me.”
Police have not released the name of the wounded officer or the suspect.
The suspect was one of four people wanted in connection with a gang-related killing in late March, Beck said. The man led police officers from Los Angeles and Hawthorne on a brief chase in El Segundo, which ended with the shootout, the chief said.
The wounded SWAT officer was shot in the hip and is expected to make a full recovery, Beck said.
The suspect was taken to a hospital in serious condition and will be arrested in connection with the March killing and for investigation of attempted murder of a police officer, the chief said.
Beck visited the wounded officer at the hospital and said he was stable and his wife, a fellow LAPD officer, was at his bedside.
The Los Angeles Police Protective League, the union that represents police officers, said the shooting is a “sombre reminder that police work is inherently dangerous and deadly.”
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