Police Kill Man Trying to Escape on Freeway Overpass

A Los Angeles police officer shot and killed a man who was scrambling down a Hollywood Freeway overpass near Sunset Boulevard and Western Avenue early Thursday in an apparent attempt to escape, authorities said.

Juan C. Aguilar, 22, fell to the freeway’s center divider after Officer Fausto J. Bustos, 38, fired a shot striking him in the head, said Police Lt. Charles Higbie.

Higbie said the incident began when Aguilar and Guillermo F. Ayala, 29, of Los Angeles, went to a fast food restaurant’s parking lot in the 1700 block of North Western Avenue with the intent of buying “rock” cocaine and drove off before paying for it. Witnesses told police that “some sort” of transaction took place between Aguilar and a man in the lot.

Bustos and his partner, Michael D. Gray, 27, saw Aguilar’s car leave the lot with an unidentified man clinging to the door on the driver’s side, yelling, “Help me. Help me.”

The officers stopped the car, but it sped off again as they approached. As the car crossed Sunset Boulevard, Higbie said, the man who had been clinging to the door either fell or was pushed to the street, where he lay motionless. Bustos and Gray believed the man was dead and continued chasing the car, Higbie said.

Aguilar apparently lost control of his car near a freeway entrance, ran to an overpass and climbed over a guardrail, Higbie said. As the officers approached, Aguilar climbed down to a structure supporting the overpass.

Bustos then fired and the suspect fell to the center divider, Higbie said, adding that the officer “believed that Aguilar would possibly arm himself and/or escape.” Aguilar was not armed, police later learned.

Ayala was arrested, questioned by Hollywood Division officers and released, Higbie said. The man who had fallen to the street during the chase, Higbie added, apparently regained consciousness and fled. He was sought for questioning.