Boy, 16, Killed by Police After Car Chase : Crime: He was shot after ditching a stolen vehicle and threatening officers with a handgun, authorities say. Friends of the youth deny that he was armed.

A 16-year-old boy was shot to death by Los Angeles police Thursday after he allegedly led officers on a pursuit in a stolen car near the USC campus and threatened them with a handgun. Friends of the youth, however, angrily disputed that he was armed.

Kenneth Moore, who lived with his mother at the University Heights apartment complex near USC, died at County-USC Medical Center on Thursday afternoon of gunshot wounds to the leg, hand and buttocks.

Police said he was driving near Manual Arts High School shortly before noon when patrol officers from the Southwest Division ran a computer check of the vehicle and discovered that it had been stolen the day before. The car took off when officers attempted to pull the driver over, police said.

The brief car chase ended at Catalina and 35th streets when Moore jumped from the moving vehicle and fled, witnesses and authorities said. Police said officers fired at the youth when he stopped briefly to pick up a handgun that he had dropped and turned toward the pursuing officers.

Police said that after the boy was struck once he stumbled face-first to the ground, dropping the gun again. When he appeared to reach for the weapon, officers fired at him again, police said. Eight shots were fired by four officers, said LAPD Lt. William Hall, who is in charge of investigating the shooting.

“He had a gun in his hand when he was running,” Hall said. “He turned back toward the officers with the gun in his hand.”

Police said the car had been stolen Wednesday in an armed robbery at the 32nd Street Market near USC. Detectives were investigating whether Moore had participated in the robbery.

Several friends who gathered at the scene said Moore, who was nicknamed Night Train, had borrowed the car from the person who had stolen it. They angrily disputed the police account, denying that Moore had a gun when he was shot.

“He jumped out of the car while it was still rolling,” said Gayle Foster, a 32-year-old neighbor who was near the scene. “Then they shot the boy. They were shooting at him while his hands were in the air. It was coldblooded murder.”

Hall said there were independent witnesses to the police version who were being interviewed by detectives at the station Wednesday afternoon.