West Covina Officer Kills Jaywalker

A West Covina police officer shot and killed a jaywalker Saturday morning, believing the man had a gun tucked in his waistband when in fact he had cookies, papers and a Bible, a Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department spokeswoman said.

The victim, believed to be in his late 20s, died a few minutes after being shot in the unincorporated Los Angeles County area of Valinda, Deputy Benita Nichol said.

The man did not have a gun, Nichol said. Neither his name nor other details about him were available late Saturday.

West Covina police declined to release any information about the officer who shot the man.

The Sheriff’s Department plans to conduct an investigation of the incident, Nichol said.

The shooting concluded a bizarre series of events that began about 9:30 a.m. Saturday when the officer saw the man jaywalk across Azusa Avenue where it crosses Temple Avenue. That intersection is in unincorporated Los Angeles County, just south of West Covina.

Nichol gave this account:

The officer, who had been driving his marked West Covina patrol car south on Azusa Avenue, made a U-turn. He pulled up alongside the man “to warn and advise him regarding jaywalking,” Nichol said.

“The man was unresponsive to the officer, staring blankly,” she said.

As the officer continued to try to talk to the jaywalker, the man ran away, heading west along the south side of Temple Avenue and the Dwight D. Eisenhower golf course.

The officer gave chase, following the man along a footpath for about half a mile.

“The entire time, the man was reaching with one or both hands down the front of his pants,” Nichol said.

The officer finally caught the man and detained him on the ground in a yard in the 400 block of Mangate Avenue.

“The officer saw a bulge beneath [the man’s] waistband,” Nichol said. Believing “the man was retrieving a gun,” the officer aimed and fired, shooting once and hitting the man in the torso, Nichol said.

The man was taken to Queen of the Valley Hospital in West Covina, where he was pronounced dead.

“No gun was found,” Nichol said. Instead, “what was found concealed under his waistband were loose cookies, miscellaneous papers and a Bible.”