Man Attempting to Evade Questioning Is Wounded by Police

A man who was shot by Los Angeles police officers after they apparently mistook the reflection of his key ring for a gun was in critical condition Thursday, authorities said.

Police said Gregory Spain, 28, was shot Wednesday night after he attempted to flee from three officers assigned to the Police Department’s 45-member Southside Serial Killer Task Force, which is investigating the deaths of 17 women slain in and around South Los Angeles.

A department spokesman gave this account:

Officers Enoch McClain, 40, and Dolores Holguin, 37, had gone to an apartment in the 6600 block of S. Denver Avenue looking for a possible witness and were talking to Spain’s brother, Darrell, 30, when Gregory Spain walked up to the apartment.

A third task force member, Officer Larry Chamberlain, 30, joined the other two officers and told them he thought Gregory Spain might be the witness. At that point, Gregory Spain ran into the apartment, closing the door behind him.

The three officers pursued him, drawing their guns as they entered, and saw Spain standing in the threshold of a bedroom with his hand “either in or under his jacket,” the spokesman said.

The reflection from “a metallic object” made the officers think that Spain was drawing a weapon, and the three officers fired a total of four shots.

At least two of the bullets wounded Spain in the torso and leg. Neither the Police Department spokesman nor a spokeswoman at Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Hospital, where Spain was treated, were sure of the number of shots that hit him.

Police said they found no gun in Spain’s possession, merely a key ring.

A search of the apartment uncovered $7,500 worth of rock cocaine and a semiautomatic pistol. Police said it was not clear whether one or both Spain brothers reside in the apartment. No arrests were made, they said.

The shooting is being investigated by the department’s officer-involved shooting team.