Local News in Brief : Man Accidentally Slain by Policeman
A Gardena police officer accidentally shot and killed a 20-year-old man who apparently ran into the line of fire as the officer shot at an armed drug suspect during an early morning drug raid, authorities said.
The shooting occurred when officers tried to serve arrest warrants on a group of suspects living at a Budlong Avenue apartment in Gardena, Police Sgt. John Moore said. As the officers entered the apartment, Moore said, one of the suspects, armed with a shotgun, ran out of a bedroom and aimed the weapon at an officer.
“This other man came running down the hallway just as the officer fired and he intersected the line of fire and was hit,” Moore said. The man with the shotgun then dropped the weapon.
The dead man was identified as Dexter Herbert.
Officers arrested eight people in the apartment on suspicion of narcotics sales and murder. They were not identified.
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