Second LAPD shooting in less than 24 hours leaves man critically wounded

Los Angeles police shot and critically wounded a 40-year-old man Wednesday in Atwater Village, marking the second shooting by the LAPD in less than 24 hours.

The shooting happened outside a home in the 4100 block of Willimet Street, where gunshots had been reported about 12:20 p.m., Los Angeles Police Department Lt. John Jenal said. Officers from the agency’s Northeast Division responded to the scene, along with paramedics.

An officer in an LAPD helicopter hovering overhead spotted a man with a rifle in front of the house and alerted the responding officers, Jenal said. The officers then “tactically deployed” at the location so they could evaluate any potential threats from the man and figure out how to get inside the home to look for any victims, he said.

“As they’re making their approach, the suspect engages the officers and there’s an [officer-involved shooting],” Jenal said.

The officers then went inside the home and found a 55-year-old woman who had been shot, Jenal said. She was pronounced dead at the scene.

Jenal said investigators were trying to determine the relationship, if any, between the woman and the man who was shot by officers.

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Investigators were looking for witnesses or any video that might have captured the shooting, Jenal said. The officers were not wearing body cameras, he said, but officers from the LAPD’s Hollenbeck Division -- whose patrol cars have cameras -- responded to the scene.

The names of the man and woman have not been released. A rifle was recovered at the scene, Jenal said.

On Tuesday, police in Panorama City fatally shot a man the LAPD said was armed with a handgun. Coroner’s officials identified him as Florencio Chaidez, a 32-year-old Panorama City resident.

The events leading up to that shooting unfolded about 2:45 p.m., Jenal said, when a 911 caller reported a man with a gun near Willis Avenue and Roscoe Boulevard. Officers began patrolling the area looking for the man, who was reported to have been wearing beige clothing.

A little less than a half-hour later, Jenal said, officers spotted someone matching the description about half a mile away, near Willis and Parthenia Street. Jenal said the man, later identified as Chaidez, was carrying a beer at the time.

Police have not said what happened in the moments leading up to the shooting, but Jenal said that at some point Chaidez “presented a handgun” that was later found near his body.

Paramedics pronounced Chaidez dead at the scene.

No officers were hurt in either shooting. The LAPD has shot 30 people this year, half of whom were killed.

The officers involved in the Panorama City shooting were wearing body cameras issued to their division just two weeks ago, the first of about 7,000 cameras that the LAPD will give its officers as it rolls out the devices department-wide.

Police Chief Charlie Beck has said he does not intend to publicly release the footage from the department’s body cameras in the vast majority of cases unless required in a criminal or civil court proceeding. He has said the department considers the footage evidence, but has also cited privacy concerns.

On Wednesday, the American Civil Liberties Union issued a statement saying the presence of the cameras in the fatal shooting represented a “pivotal moment” when the LAPD could use the cameras to show transparency and build community trust.

The group, which has repeatedly criticized the department’s decision not to publicly share the recordings, called on the LAPD to release the video “as soon as it is practicably possible to do so without interfering with the department’s internal investigation.”

“LAPD must stop just asking for the public’s trust in shooting investigations and must do its part to build it,” said Hector Villagra, executive director of the ACLU’s Southern California chapter.

Follow @katemather for more LAPD news.

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