Man Pulls Fake Gun, Is Killed by Officer

A motorist who reached for a “realistic-looking” weapon that turned out to be a snub-nosed cap pistol was shot and killed by a West Covina police officer during a routine traffic stop early Friday morning, sheriff’s deputies said.

Officer Bradley Smith, 29, a veteran of the West Covina and Whittier police departments, had pulled over the unidentified 23-year-old Hispanic man about 3:15 a.m., and was approaching the car when the man “reached for what was later found to be a realistic-looking cap pistol,” a sheriff’s spokesman said.

Smith fired six shots, and the driver was pronounced dead at the scene, the spokesman said. His identity has not been released because relatives have not been contacted, but he was reportedly a Guatemalan who lived in Anaheim.

The Sheriff’s Department is handling the investigation at the request of the West Covina police.