Police Shoot at 2 Men in Separate Incidents; 1 Suspect Is Wounded

In two separate confrontations over the weekend, police officers in Burbank and South Los Angeles fired at suspects who were allegedly brandishing weapons, authorities said.

No law enforcement personnel were injured, and both men were arrested.

On Friday evening, a Burbank officer shot a man who allegedly threatened him with a butcher knife.

The officer, whose name was not released, had responded to a call of a man threatening his family in the 500 block of North Griffith Park Drive.

When the officer arrived, shortly before 7:30 p.m., he was confronted in the street by Tom Bernard McCoy, 58, officials said.

“McCoy charged the officer with a butcher knife, ignoring repeated orders to drop the knife,” a police statement said. “McCoy continued to charge at the officer, who fired one shot, striking McCoy in the torso.”

No other injuries were reported, and McCoy was treated at Providence St. Joseph Medical Center in Burbank.

McCoy was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder of a police officer and is being held in lieu of $100,000 bail at Los Angeles County jail in downtown Los Angeles.

He is scheduled to be arraigned Tuesday in Los Angeles County Superior Court in Burbank.

About 9 a.m. Saturday, two Los Angeles police officers, who believed they had probable cause, stopped a pedestrian at 111th Street and Zamora Avenue near Nickerson Gardens.

The 19-year-old suspected gang member allegedly pointed a shotgun at them, officials said.

One officer shot at the man, said LAPD Officer Sandra Escalante, but he was not injured and fled.

Marcus Williams was later found in a nearby apartment and arrested on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon.

He was being held at the 77th Street Division police station in lieu of $50,000 bail.

The incident marks at least the 16th time this year that officers have come under fire in South Los Angeles and the fourth within the last month that LAPD personnel have been targeted on or near the Nickerson Gardens projects.

The weekend incidents come nearly six weeks after Mathew Pavelka, a rookie officer with the Burbank Police Department, was fatally shot in Burbank while inspecting a car without license plates.

Pavelka, 26, was the first officer killed in the line of duty in the department’s 82-year history. The shootout occurred Nov. 15 in the parking lot of a Ramada Inn, an area known for gang and drug crime. Officer Gregory Campbell was seriously wounded in the incident.

David Garcia, 19, faces murder and attempted murder charges in the shooting. He was arrested in Tijuana on Thanksgiving Day after a two-week manhunt conducted by Mexican and American investigators.