Suspect killed and Culver City officer wounded in police shooting

A Culver City police officer was wounded by friendly fire and a suspect was killed in a shooting Monday afternoon, officials said.

The incident occurred about 3 p.m. in the 8800 block of Washington Boulevard in Culver City, according to a media statement from the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department. Detectives with the department’s homicide bureau are helping investigate the shooting.

About 2:25 pm, the Culver City Police Department received a call about an armed man in a parking structure, said Sheriff’s Department Lt. Derrick Alfred. A maintenance worker who had been investigating a water leak by a stairwell in the structure had come across a man he said appeared to have been tampering with the water system.

Alfred said that when the maintenance worker asked the man to leave, he instead brandished a knife.

Officers who arrived at the scene found the suspect moving between different levels of the parking garage. At one point, he tried to barricade himself behind a door, and as officers tried to pry it open, the man charged forward with a knife, Alfred said. Two officers fired their guns and the suspect was struck.

During the encounter, an officer who was on scene was shot in the leg, presumably by one of the officers who had fired at the suspect, Alfred said.

The wounded officer was taken to a hospital in fair condition while the suspect died at a hospital.

Alfred said the dead man hasn’t been identified yet.