L.A. Police Officers Involved in 3 More Shootings

Los Angeles police killed a man who had a knife, shot and wounded a man running with a gun, and fired at but missed a man suspected of robbery, all in separate incidents Friday that raised the number of officer-involved shootings in a week to eight, detectives said.

Friday’s first incident occurred about 2 a.m. after a woman in the Westlake area called police to say that her former boyfriend had forced his way into her third-floor apartment in the 600 block of Shatto Place and had taken some of her things.

LAPD Sgt. John Pasquariello, a spokesman for the department, said she directed officers to an apartment down the hall.

“As the door opened, they saw that the suspect had a knife,” Pasquariello said. “They repeatedly ordered him to drop the knife, but he advanced toward them, shouting, ‘Shoot me! Shoot me!’ ”

Fearing for their lives, Officers Arthur Bedard and Edwin Dominguez opened fire, Pasquariello said. The 22-year-old man, whose name was not released, was killed.

Bedard, 34, is a 13-year LAPD veteran. Dominguez, 37, has been with the department eight years.

About 10:30 a.m., officers responding to a report of a robbery in progress at a downtown market saw a man with a pistol standing at Washington Boulevard and New England Street, Pasquariello said.

“When he advanced toward them with the gun raised, two officers opened fire,” Pasquariello said.

The man fell to the ground, and it was first thought that he had been wounded, but an examination by paramedics showed he was uninjured, detectives said.

The unidentified man was being booked on suspicion of armed robbery and suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon, Pasquariello said.

At 8 p.m. Friday, gang officers were approaching a house on 80th Street when an 18-year-old armed with a gun ran out, police said. Officers shot him in the arm.

Other shootings in the last week left two men dead from gunfire, and two 16-year-old boys were killed when their car struck a tree after police fired at it.

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The deaths of the youths, Salvador Sibrian and Uriel Damien, prompted a protest Wednesday by about 50 people who alleged that race had motivated an officer who fired at the car. Some of the demonstrators carried placards urging LAPD’s new chief, William J. Bratton, to “control your cops.”

Bratton, told about the signs, responded: “Control your kids.”

Sibrian and Damien died about 1 a.m. Nov. 16, when the car in which they were riding hit a tree on 53rd Street near Central Avenue after Officer Tommy Thompson fired at the vehicle. Thompson says he opened fire after the driver suddenly accelerated toward him. But Luis Carrillo, a lawyer representing the boys’ families, contends the teenagers were the victims of “trigger-happy police.”

Detectives say a car alarm attracted Thompson and his partner to the car. Thompson’s shots wounded Sibrian and Damien, but they died their deaths were caused by the crash, police said.

Thompson, a six-year LAPD veteran, was involved in two previous shootings, both of which were later ruled justified.

The crash that killed Sibrian and Damien also injured three others in the car, including the driver, Miguel Lopez, 19. Lopez is being held at the County-USC Medical Center jail ward on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon: the car.

About 7 p.m. Nov. 15, police shot an unidentified man to death in Wilmington after he allegedly rammed their patrol car with his pickup truck.

Two hours later, two Wilshire Division officers shot a man running from a carport where another man had been shot.

Both men, neither of whom has been identified, were seriously wounded.

About 4 a.m. Nov. 16, officers who witnessed a shooting were fired upon as they intervened. The officers returned fire, but no one was hit.

A day later, an officer killed an unarmed car-theft suspect in South-Central Los Angeles. Detectives said the officer, fearing for his life, fired one shot at the unidentified man.

The car had been reported stolen in Palmdale.