Off-Duty Officer Shoots Holdup Suspects, Kills 1 : Violence: Pair allegedly threatened lawman at gunpoint. Second man is critically wounded.

An off-duty police officer opened fire on two men who allegedly tried to rob him at gunpoint outside a bagel shop, killing one man and critically wounding the other.

Officer Paul Seban, 49, fired nine shots at his assailants while sitting in his car Thursday night, hitting both men several times, according to police. Nelson Delgado, 22, of Los Angeles, was listed in critical condition at Good Samaritan Hospital. The dead man’s identification was withheld pending notification of his relatives.

Police said Seban, a 15-year department veteran assigned to the Metropolitan Division, stopped at Brooklyn Bagel Bakery on West Beverly Boulevard shortly before 10:30 p.m. and was accosted by two men after he returned to his car.

According to police, one of the suspects drew a handgun and pointed it at the plainclothes officer, demanding his money and threatening to kill him. Seban tried to stall the suspects while he withdrew a 9-millimeter pistol “without alerting the gunman, since he was looking at the barrel of a gun,” a police spokesman said.

Then, “because he was fearing for his life,” Seban fired several shots through the driver’s side window, killing the armed suspect. Seban told investigators that Delgado “reached into his waistband as he stepped away from the officer’s vehicle” leading Seban to believe he also had a weapon. Seban shot him several times, wounding him in the chest and buttocks, according to police.

Store owner Richard Friedman said that, in the 37 years the bakery has been open, “We’ve never had anything like this happen. We’ve been very lucky. Fortunately, none of our employees were close by at the time.”

The shop is a popular hangout for policemen.

Seban arrested Delgado at the scene and recovered a loaded .22-caliber revolver, according to police. The suspects fired no shots, police said.

Police said two robbers held up another man in an adjacent parking lot minutes before the shooting. Police said the suspects took $11 from the man at gunpoint before attempting to rob the off-duty police officer.