The Region : TV Device Mistaken for Gun; Man Killed

A Glendale man pointed a television remote control device at a passing car and was shot to death by police officers who said they thought it was a handgun. Police said three Glendale officers, answering a report of a man with a gun, said they found Javier Gonzales Alvarado, 23, in the middle of an intersection, clutching a silver-and-gray object in a two-handed combat pistol stance. They ordered him to drop the weapon and when, instead, he pointed it at a passing car, the officers opened fire. Alvarado died at St. Joseph Medical Center in Burbank. The “handgun” turned out to be be a device for changing TV channels.