Drug Dealer Suspect Killed in Shootout

A suspected narcotics dealer was killed Thursday in an exchange of gunfire with a Los Angeles County sheriff’s special weapons team leader during a siege at a West Covina home, authorities said.

A Sheriff’s Department spokesman said the suspect opened fire with an automatic weapon on Sgt. Ken Johnson, who returned the fire and killed him.

A 2-year-old boy in the house at 720 S. La Serena Drive was wounded in the foot by an apparent ricochet, Deputy Sam Jones said. The child and the boy’s mother, who was not hurt, were taken to a nearby hospital.

The names of the dead man and two other suspects--the child’s mother and an adult male--were not immediately released.

The siege began at about 1:20 p.m. after the occupants of the home ignored orders to surrender, deputies said. Using a ladder, Johnson went through a second-story window to a loft and was confronted by the suspect, who was armed with what authorities described as a weapon “similar to an Uzi” submachine gun.

The raid was part of a coordinated crackdown on narcotics trade in the east San Gabriel Valley, authorities said. Using search warrants, deputies conducted simultaneous raids at nine locations.