Police Shoot, Kill Man in Busy Park

A man was shot and killed by Long Beach police officers Sunday afternoon in a park crowded with 200 to 300 parents and children who had gathered for soccer games, authorities said.

The Long Beach shooting occurred on a violent Sunday in which officers were involved in two other unrelated shootings--one in which Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies shot and killed a knife-wielding man and another in Compton where sheriff’s deputies shot and wounded two men after a chase.

In Long Beach, officers responded about 3:30 p.m. to reports of a man with a gun at Chittick Field Park at Pacific Coast Highway and Walnut Avenue, said Long Beach Police Sgt. Steve Filippini. When officers arrived, several witnesses pointed them toward the man, who matched the description provided to dispatchers, Filippini said.

Several officers approached and confronted the suspect, who failed to comply with the officers’ commands, given in English and Spanish, Filippini said. More than one officer fired their weapons at the man, who was shot and killed, Filippini said.

No gun had been found as of Sunday night, and because officers were still being interviewed, it was not known what prompted the shooting, Filippini said.

“I’m sure the officers were not only concerned about their safety but were concerned about the safety of everyone in the park,” Filippini said.

The man was shot in an open area where cars were parked, Filippini said. Right after the shooting, officers cordoned off the area and questioned 50 to 60 witnesses, Filippini said.

In another shooting in the unincorporated Los Angeles County neighborhood of Athens, a man armed with a knife was killed by Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies Sunday morning after he allegedly stabbed a woman to death and attacked an officer.

Sheriff’s Deputy Cruz Solis said officers responding to a domestic violence call about 11:00 a.m. broke down the door of a home in the 11000 block of Normandie Avenue after the occupants refused to answer the door.

Inside, the deputies found a woman lying in a pool of blood next to a man who lunged at them with a utility knife, Solis said. The officers opened fire, but the wounded man stabbed one of the deputies, at which point the officers shot him again in the torso. The man died en route to the hospital. The officer wore a bulletproof vest and was protected from injury.

The woman was pronounced dead at the scene. Authorities refused to release the names of her name pending notification of family, but said they believed the two were living together.

The incident occurred a week after another fatal shooting involving Lennox deputies 10 blocks away. On Feb. 11, officers confronted Robert Eugene Jones, 38, from San Pedro, whom they suspected of dealing and being under the influence of narcotics.

According to Solis, a foot chase ensued, and Deputy Daniel Leon eventually caught up with Jones at the corner of 103rd Street and Western Avenue just over the border in Los Angeles city. When Jones grabbed Leon’s drawn gun, Leon reached for a backup firearm and shot Jones in the chest, Solis said. Jones died a short time later. Authorities said they do not believe the incidents are related.

In Compton, sheriff’s deputies shot and wounded two men early Sunday morning after a car chase that ended in an alley near West Laurel Street and South Wilmington Avenue in Compton, authorities said.

The injured men, whose names were not released, were being treated at a hospital and are expected to recover, Deputy Alba Harrison said.

The two deputies who chased and shot the suspects were uninjured in the 3:45 a.m. incident, Harrison said. The deputies opened fire because they felt threatened by the suspects, whom they believed were armed, she said.

Harrison could not say whether the men were armed.

The chase began in Lynwood after the deputies--who were looking for the source of gunfire outside the Century sheriff’s station on Alameda Street--came upon a car with four occupants that was being driven erratically, Harrison said.

The driver refused to pull over and headed to Compton, with the deputies in pursuit.

The chase ended when the suspects turned into an alley and crashed the car into a fence, Harrison said.

The other two suspects, whose names also were not released, were not injured and are in custody, she said.

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Times correspondent Laura Wides contributed to this story.