LAPD officer fatally shoots man in South L.A.

A Los Angeles police officer shot and killed a man Monday after a short chase that ended with gunfire behind a South L.A. home, police said.

The incident began about 1 p.m., when officers with the L.A. Police Department’s Metropolitan Division were driving near 27th Street and Maple Avenue, Det. Meghan Aguilar said. The officers were in the neighborhood as part of the department’s “crime suppression” efforts in which Metro officers monitor certain areas for potential criminal activity.

The officers spotted a man who they “believed was about to burglarize a vehicle,” Aguilar said. They stopped driving to investigate, she said, and the man took off running.

The officers left their vehicle and chased him to the back of a nearby house, Aguilar said, where one officer shot the man.

It was not immediately clear what happened in the moments before the shooting or why the officer fired, Aguilar said. Investigators found a handgun near the man’s body that they believe was his, she added.

It was also not clear why the officers thought the man intended to burglarize the vehicle. By midafternoon, she said, investigators had not yet interviewed the officers about what led to the deadly encounter.

The man’s name has not been released by authorities. Aguilar said police believe he was in his 20s.

Aguilar said investigators would canvass the area for any surveillance footage that may have captured the chase or shooting. The officers did not have body cameras or a camera in their vehicle, she said.

No officers were injured.

Investigators blocked off Maple Avenue with yellow police tape Monday afternoon, drawing the attention of neighbors and children walking home from school. Aguilar said investigators expected the area to be closed for several hours.

kate.mather@latimes.com

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