Police Shoot and Kill Man in Chase Through Hospital

Police shot and killed an armed man who led them through the halls of Childrens Hospital of Los Angeles late Monday afternoon, saying he wanted to die.

The man, who was identified only as a Latino in his 20s, walked into the hospital’s lobby and screamed that he wanted a CAT scan, said a hospital security guard who asked not to be named.

“He said that’s all he wanted,” the guard said. “We said we’re going to make preparations to get him a CAT scan,” a type of X-ray.

Other security officials notified Los Angeles police officers who were in the hospital on other business, the guard said.

Officers confronted the man, who was seated in the lobby, holding a gun to his head and a knife in his other hand, said Lt. William Hall, head of the Police Department’s officer-involved shooting investigation team. He did not drop the gun when ordered to, Hall added.

Meanwhile, security officers and police evacuated the lobby. Then the man was again ordered to drop his gun, Hall said.

“You’re going to have to kill me,” Hall said the man responded. “I want to die.”

The lieutenant said the man stood and began walking down a corridor, farther into the hospital.

“The officers were afraid that he would be an even greater danger . . . “ Hall said. “He still had the gun at his temple.”

An officer, whom Hall did not identify, fired a shot, apparently missing the man as he turned down a corridor. At another turn, a second shot was fired, also apparently missing, Hall said.

“He is still saying, ‘You’ll have to kill me,’ ” Hall said.

A third shot was fired, also apparently missing, when the man turned and began to lower his gun, Hall said. Officers fired a fourth shot and the man “went down.” He died in the emergency room.

“We’re not sure why he was here or why he was acting that way,” Hall said of the man.

Witnesses gave reporters accounts that differed in some details from the police version.

Jerry Jarvis of Covina, who had brought his 10-year-old son to the hospital at 4650 W. Sunset Blvd. for tests, said he saw a uniformed officer and a man in civilian clothes chasing the man down a hall.

“I noticed them, because they almost ran head on into us,” he said.

Jarvis said he saw the man “throw himself into a chair” in the lobby area. “He reached into a brown bag, pulled out a gun and put it to his head. I heard him say he didn’t want to hurt nobody.”

John Radtke, a nuclear medicine technician at the hospital, said he “saw four or five officers chasing the man and yelling at him to stop.”

Then, Radtke said, he heard a shot, followed by perhaps as many as five more.

Reports conflicted about whether the man spoke in English or Spanish or both.

Jarvis said the man spoke in English.

However, one witness, Brian Merritt, said he was “almost behind” the man. “Suddenly he has a plastic bag. He pulled a gun from it and started talking kind of crazy. It was not in English.”