Attempted Theft of Car Ends in Fatal Shooting : Van Nuys: Police say a man and his partner may have thought they were being chased by officers when a van they were in crashed.

A man who was shot and killed in Van Nuys on Thursday by the owner of a car that he was trying to steal may also have been a victim of his own fear.

Los Angeles police said Roderick Mack, 31, and a partner may have thought officers were chasing the stolen vehicle they were driving. But Lt. Richard Blankenship said, “I think they were seeing shadows because we didn’t have anybody following them.”

Police had been called shortly before the 1 p.m. shooting by a man who reported that he saw a white mini-van with three masked men inside who appeared to be casing the United Parcel Service office at 16000 Arminta St., Blankenship said.

Officers did not find the van near the business, but subsequently a vehicle matching that description crashed into a street sign on Firmament Avenue, about a block south of Saticoy Street. Police only found the vehicle, however, when they responded to the report of the shooting.

Police later discovered that Mack, who lived in Lake View Terrace, was a UPS driver. He had a criminal record that included arrests for robbery, battery on a police officer and grand theft from a person.

A beige ski mask, a handgun and a set of keys were found on Firmament, just south of the crash. Two more ski masks were discovered inside the van, Detective John Edwards said.

Blankenship said the cause of the crash was unknown. The vehicle appeared to have sustained only minor cosmetic damage.

Two men fled the crash and ran north to Saticoy Street, where they tried to steal a white Pontiac Fiero from Frank Dawson, 67, in his driveway in the 15500 block of Saticoy.

“He was in his driveway and he was about to leave when these guys came up to him,” Detective Steve Fisk said.

One of the men struggled with Dawson, who pulled out a gun and shot the suspected robber twice in the stomach shortly before 1 p.m., Edwards said.

The injured man was taken to Holy Cross Medical Center where he died about 4:30 p.m., Edwards said.

“He talked all the way to the hospital . . . all he said was ‘Help me. Help me,’ ” Edwards said.

Following the shooting, the other robbery suspect fled on foot. The whereabouts of the third man thought to have been in the mini-van when it crashed was unknown, Blankenship said. Officers using police dogs combed a four-square-block area for about five hours but were unable to find either man, Edwards said.

The van had been reported stolen in a carjacking incident Wednesday morning in North Hills, Fisk said. The owner of the van was getting into the vehicle when she was struck in the back and knocked to the ground.