Boy in Fight Is Shot, Killed; Guard Held

As a crowd of nearly 300 people looked on, a security guard shot and killed one of three boys fighting on a busy street Thursday in the jewelry district in downtown Los Angeles, police said.

Weldon Ivory, 42, a guard at a jewelry store at 6th Street and Broadway, was booked for suspicion of murder and is being held without bail at the Parker Center Jail, police said. He ordered the boys to stop fighting and pulled his pistol when they didn’t, officers said.

“These guys were fighting out in the street,” said Fidel Herrera, 25, a salesman in a nearby store. “He told them to stop, but the guys didn’t. So he pulled out his gun, and then it went off.

“I don’t know whether he intended to shoot or if it went off accidentally. But he hit him right behind the eye,” he said.

Investigators said the victim appeared to be between 17 and 19. No other identification was immediately available. He died instantly, police said.

The incident began about 2:30 p.m. when Ivory confronted the three boys who were fighting in front of a store next door to where the guard worked, detectives said. After the shooting, Ivory called police, investigators said. Police are seeking the other two boys as witnesses.