Injured Inglewood officers out of danger; gunman takes hostage

Two Inglewood police officers who were wounded while responding to a domestic disturbance are expected to recover, Inglewood Police officials said.

Despite initial reports that two officers were shot, Capt. James Madia said only one was hit by gunfire. The other officer sustained minor injuries.

Madia said the officers were responding to a home in the 10700 block of 5th Avenue. Both were taken to the hospital and “are fine, they’re out of danger,” he said.

PHOTOS: Inglewood shooting

The department’s SWAT and hostage negotiation teams are on the scene and trying to contact the gunman.

“We have a suspect in the house and possibly one hostage,” he said.

Inglewood Police Lt. Oscar Mejia said the suspect barricaded in the home has called the Inglewood police station “a couple of times.” He said SWAT negotiators are trying to set up lines of communication to speak to him.

Kimberly Edwards, who lives near the site of the shooting, said she was heading to McDonald’s when the commotion began.

“I saw a panicked brother scream at the police officers, ‘Please get my sister out of that house, please get my sister out of that house!’ ” she told The Times.

She said she heard a barrage of gunfire and saw a female officer collapse.

“That’s when I panicked, I had never seen that,” she said.

Edwards said the gunfire continued after the officers were injured.

Another neighbor, who did not want to be identified, said she was cooking when she heard screaming about 12:30 p.m. She ran outside and saw a man dragging her 14-year-old neighbor into the house and slamming the door.

The woman said she ran to another neighbor’s home and told them to call police. The suspect is the boyfriend of the girl’s mother, the neighbor said.

She told the two Inglewood police officers who arrived what happened. When they approached the door of the house and knocked, the suspect shot at them through the window, the neighbor said.

Ubirdia Holmes, 82, said she was play playing a game of bridge on her computer Wednesday afternoon when she heard a “pop-pop-pop.”

“I waited five or six minutes before coming out of the house,” she said.

She stepped outside her apartment at 110th Street and Crenshaw Boulevard to find police vehicles swarming the divider that separates her home from the roadway.

“It’s a tragedy,” she said.

As law enforcement officials descended on the scene, children continued riding their bikes nearby, playing as helicopters whirred above.

Authorities stretched yellow caution tape between two homes, blocking curious onlookers, at the intersection of 109th Street and Wilkie Avenue.

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ari.bloomekatz@latimes.com

ruben.vives@latimes.com