Police fatally shoot burglary suspect in Boyle Heights apartment

Los Angeles police shot and killed a man Sunday evening after he broke into a Boyle Heights home and took an elderly resident hostage, officials said.

The events leading up to the deadly shooting in the 1400 block of Gabriel Garcia Marquez Street began about 8:30 p.m., when police said multiple residents called 911 about a burglary at a nearby home.

LAPD Chief Charlie Beck told reporters Monday that a 28-year-old man had smashed the windows of a house where an 83-year-old man lived alone. The suspect forced his way inside and began ransacking the home, Beck said, then took the older man hostage.

“The suspect had been so loud and violent in his attack, smashing the windows to get in the house, that it alerted the whole neighborhood,” Beck said.

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Some neighbors grabbed baseball bats and knives, Beck said, and were getting ready to try to rescue the resident when two officers from the LAPD’s Hollenbeck Division arrived at the scene. The officers ran inside and saw the 28-year-old man holding a knife to the victim’s neck, Beck said.

“They tried to negotiate, they tried to de-escalate,” Beck said. “None of that worked.”

Instead, Beck said, the suspect “began to do things that indicated that he was going to kill the victim.” One of the officers then fired his gun, striking the suspect. He died at the scene.

The 83-year-old victim was not injured, LAPD Officer Norma Eisenman said.

The suspect, whose name has not been released, was the sixth person shot and killed by on-duty LAPD officers this year.

Beck said the inquiry into the shooting was “very much an unfolding investigation,” but said investigators had collected footage from body cameras the officers were wearing. The shooting will also be reviewed by the District Attorney’s office, the Police Commission and its inspector general.

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