2 Shot Dead by LAPD in Similar Incidents

The shootings of two criminal suspects by police in unrelated incidents in Chatsworth and Wilmington on Thursday marked the 14th and 15th times this year that suspects have been killed by on-duty Los Angeles Police Department officers. The two incidents occurred at about 8 p.m., and in both cases firing began after the suspects allegedly began driving their vehicles toward officers who were on foot.

They were the 21st and 22nd incidents this year in which officers have fired their guns in the line of duty, the LAPD said Friday.

In the Chatsworth incident, an undercover police surveillance unit was trying to catch four suspected purse snatchers. But the driver of the suspects’ car allegedly resisted arrest and instead began ramming a police car, injuring an officer who had fallen to the ground nearby.

To protect the officer on the ground, another officer fired two rounds at the driver, police said. The man who was shot has not yet been identified. He was pronounced dead at the scene by paramedics.

The other three suspects--Michael Allen Soto, 20, and Derrick Waddell, 18, both of Chatsworth, and Leonard Cornish, 19, of Canoga Park, were arrested without incident, according to the LAPD.

Officer Michael Amado, 29, who fell to the ground, was injured in his lower body. He was released from the hospital Friday, said Det. Roseanne Parino of LAPD’s Robbery-Homicide Division. “He’s sedated and hasn’t been interviewed yet. He was banged up pretty good,” she said.

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The Wilmington shooting involved a standoff between dozens of officers and a suspect and his girlfriend, whom officers trapped in a residential cul-de-sac. As residents watched in horror, the suspect allegedly sped at officers and was killed in a barrage of gunfire. In all, nine officers fired their guns, the LAPD said.

In addition to killing the driver, police shot his girlfriend, Kathy Romero, in the leg. She alleged that police had opened fire without provocation, but her account appeared to be contradicted by witnesses.

Neither police nor the Los Angeles County coroner would identify the driver in the Wilmington shooting, but Romero identified him as Amos Bell, who she said was recently released from jail. She would not say why he had been jailed.

Police described him as a gang member who was suspected of fleeing police after a hit-and-run against a patrol car last Sunday. The patrol officers then had been responding to a report of a man with a weapon, according to Sgt. John Pasquariallo, a police spokesman.

On Thursday evening, Harbor Division patrol and CRASH officers spotted the same white minivan suspected in the hit-and-run, Pasquariallo said. He said they followed the van and eventually tried to pull it over, but the driver sped away, turning onto Baypoint Avenue where it forms a cul-de-sac south of Sandison Street in Wilmington.

The patrol cars blocked the street and ordered the driver to get out of the van, the spokesman said. When he refused, police shot out his side windows with shotguns loaded with beanbags “to get his attention.”

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Police then approached the van, opened the door and tried to pull the driver out, Pasquariallo said, but the driver sped backward, sweeping the officers back with the open door until they rammed another car and were knocked to the ground. During that maneuver, one officer fired his gun, he said. It was not clear whether that shot hit anyone.

With residents gathering outside their houses, the driver sped up a driveway and crashed into a garage, then reversed and began speeding toward police officers who were on foot, Pasquariallo said. The officers, “in fear for their safety,” opened fire, he said.

Nelson Feliciano, a resident of the street, said he and his family watched until he heard the first gunshot. “I took the kids in the house,” Feliciano said. “They all got down on the floor to be safe.”

Feliciano said he returned outside to watch the van lurch up a nearby driveway, crash into the garage, and then reverse and speed toward the officers, who opened fire.

Several neighbors said they recalled seeing police drag Romero out of the van. A wild struggle ensued.

Romero said she was beaten by police, but the residents said she appeared to be struggling with them.

“She was fighting with the police, and they were having a hard time getting her down,” resident John McDonough said.

Romero, 29, said she and Bell, 20, were followed onto the cul-de-sac by police for no apparent reason, but feared that officers were after her because she knew incriminating details about a homicide in Harbor City last year. Because of that, she said, neither she nor Bell wanted to get out of the van.

“I told him to get out, but he said, ‘Baby, I can’t,’ ” Romero said. She said Bell apparently wanted to stay in the van to protect her.

Both she and Bell raised their hands to show police they were not armed, Romero said.

After the incident, Romero was taken to San Pedro Peninsula Hospital, where she was treated for her wounds. She was not arrested and there are no plans to do so, police said.

Times staff writers Caitlin Liu and Zanto Peabody contributed to this story.