Police Kill Suspect in Girl’s Death

El Monte police on Tuesday fatally shot a man suspected in the weekend killing of a 6-year-old girl after he refused to get out of a car and reached under the seat, authorities said.

Investigators have not established whether the 23-year-old man, who has not been identified, had any connection to the shooting Sunday of Bryesha Limbrick, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Deputy Steve Suzuki said.

At about 11 a.m. Tuesday, El Monte plainclothes detectives saw two men in a red Honda near Valley Boulevard and Garvey Avenue.

Suzuki said the officers were acting on “information that there were two male Hispanics adults, possibly gang members, in that red Honda, armed with an assault rifle which could have some connection” with the fatal shooting of the child.

The men involved in the Sunday shooting were Latinos in their 20s driving a black Honda, Suzuki said.

The detectives called in an uniformed officers who stopped the car and ordered the men out, officials said.

The driver cooperated, but the passenger ignored police orders and reached under his seat, officials said.

The detectives, fearing he was reaching for a gun, fired several rounds that struck him in the upper torso, Suzuki said. The man died at a hospital.

No weapon was recovered, and the driver was not arrested.

Homicide detectives will investigate the shooting, Suzuki said.

Bryesha was leaving a 7-Eleven Sunday night after buying ice cream with her 20-year-old uncle, Gustav Ramirez, when they saw two men in a parking lot, one armed with a rifle, and began to run, Ramirez said.

Bryesha was shot in the head and died on the street, he said.

Sheriff’s deputies said the two men had been seen at the 7-Eleven about 15 minutes earlier, but it was not clear whether they had been planning a robbery.