Police Kill Armed Man They Mistook as Burglary Suspect

An armed man mistaken as an intruder was shot and killed in his own home Saturday by Torrance police, authorities said.

The name of the victim--reportedly shot once after he pointed a cocked revolver at police officers--was withheld until relatives could be notified.

Torrance police officials said the confrontation occurred about 1:35 a.m. after officers were sent to investigate a report of gunshots and an apparent burglary-in-progress in the 4800 block of Sara Drive.

Arriving officers noticed a side door open and its molding broken, according to Torrance police Lt. Wally Murker. When officers looked inside, they saw a man in a hallway holding a gun, he said.

But when officers ordered the man to drop the weapon, he “lowered it from shoulder height and aimed it at officers,” said Lt. Mark Wittenberg. One of the officers then fired at the man.

Police said information was sketchy about what led to the incident. A man who answered the door at the two-story, holiday-decorated home where the shooting occurred declined to comment Saturday afternoon. “It’s a sad moment,” he explained.

But residents along the well-tended street half a block from West High School said the victim was apparently locked out of the residence, which he rented with four other men, after a party there ended.

Scott Mittleman, who lives across the street, called authorities after hearing two gunshots, said his sister-in-law, Doris Phillips.

“He thought the shots were coming from his own front yard, so he called police,” Phillips said. “But when he looked out the window, he could see the silhouette of the man with the gun against the Christmas lights across the street. He knew they had come from over there.”

Mittleman called police back and told them that the shots apparently came from the neighboring dwelling, Phillips said. Mittleman was described by a friend as “too shook up” over the incident to talk about it Saturday afternoon.

Other neighbors said they heard numerous shots after police arrived at the scene.

“We heard four or five more shots” about 15 minutes after the initial gunfire, said Larry Henderson, who lives a few houses east of the shooting site. “I looked outside and saw a police car.”

Jongun Ahn, who lives next door to the victim and remembered him and his four roommates as quiet and well-mannered, counted “five or six” shots.

“I was surprised by the gunfire. I thought it was somebody’s stupid New Year’s Eve stunt,” Ahn said. “I can’t believe somebody was killed. That kind of thing just don’t happen here. Those things don’t happen in West Torrance.”

Torrance police declined to identify the officers involved in the incident. But they said only one round was fired at the victim and that the victim did not fire at police--although his loaded revolver held one expended shell.

The district attorney’s office, along with Torrance police, will investigate the incident, Wittenberg said.