Deputies Kill 2 Men in Compton Shootout

Sheriff’s deputies killed two men in a shootout Tuesday in Compton after the men reportedly tried to steal a car occupied by a woman and child and then opened fire on the officers.

The deputies weren’t injured.

The woman drove away with the child, and authorities don’t know who they are.

The deputies, whose names weren’t released, were patrolling on Compton Boulevard when they saw two men in the act of carjacking, Deputy Scott Butler said.

When the officers tried to intervene, the men ran. The deputies followed in a car as the men ran left on Bradfield Avenue and then left into an alley. At that point, the men began shooting at the officers, peppering the patrol car with bullets, officials said.

The officers got out and, in what witnesses described as an extended exchange of gunfire, returned fire, hitting both men in the upper torso. One died at the scene. The second was pronounced dead at Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center.

“It was definitely a gun battle,” Butler said. “The vehicle was struck and the deputies had to exit and engage.”

Mark Deese, 50, who lives around the corner from the alley, said he and his three children were lying on the floor.

“It was ... warfare sounding,” he said. “I heard like 20 or 30 shots.... It was probably 30 seconds, but it seemed like forever.”

Butler said the woman and the child, who was in the car’s back seat, “were saved from injury due to the intervention of the deputies. They were in the right place at the right time. It was very fortunate.”