2 Officers Kill Man They Say Pointed Pistol at Them

Two plainclothes Los Angeles police officers shot and killed a man on a Pacoima sidewalk Thursday night when the man whirled and pointed a cocked pistol, police said.

Lt. Charles Higbie, who directs a team that investigates officer-involved shootings, said one of the 10 rounds fired by the officers grazed the leg of an 11-year-old boy standing nearby.

The shooting took place about 7:30 p.m. after Ramon Serrano, the owner of the Nopalito Cafe in the 13300 block of Van Nuys Boulevard, called police, saying an armed man had confronted him inside the restaurant, Higbie said.

The unidentified man reportedly had entered the cafe earlier, had consumed several bottles of beer, and tried to enter the kitchen. When Serrano stopped him, the man pulled a semi-automatic pistol from his waistband and pointed it at the cafe owner, Higbie said, whereupon Serrano left the cafe and called police.

Sgt. Tom L. Wilkinson, 46, and Officer Jimmie W. Jones, 40, were in the area and answered the radio call reporting a man with a gun, police said. When the two plainclothesmen arrived, they spotted the suspect standing on the sidewalk with a pistol in his hand, police said.

The officers, crouching behind the doors of their police cruiser, reportedly identified themselves and ordered the man in Spanish and English to drop his weapon. Instead, the man turned toward the officers and pointed the pistol, police said.

“Believing that the suspect was going to shoot, the officers fired a total of 10 rounds from their respective service revolvers,” Higbie said.

The suspect, who fell mortally wounded to the pavement, was taken by ambulance to Serra Memorial Hospital in Sun Valley, where he died at 10:10 p.m. The 11-year-old was treated and released to his parents.

Wilkinson, a 19-year veteran of the force, and Jones, a 16-year veteran, normally wear uniforms but were in plain clothes Thursday investigating a killing that took place earlier in the week.

Wilkinson is the field supervisor of the northeast Valley anti-gang unit called CRASH--Community Resources Against Street Hoodlums--and Jones is a member of that unit.