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Four arrested in connection with killing of off-duty LAPD officer in South L.A.

LAPD officer, Fernando Arroyos
Officer Fernando Arroyos was shot and killed during an armed robbery attempt Monday night in an unincorporated area of South L.A., authorities said.
(Los Angeles Police Department)
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Four people have been arrested in connection with the killing of off-duty Los Angeles Police Officer Fernando Arroyos during an armed robbery Monday evening in an unincorporated area of South L.A.

L.A. County Sheriff’s officials announced the arrests Wednesday morning, but said they were not providing further details because doing so could compromise the investigation. The department would not release the identities of those arrested or their booking details, including whether the four suspects were arrested on suspicion of murder or other crimes.

The announcement of the arrests came after Sheriff’s Homicide Bureau Capt. Joe Mendoza revealed Tuesday that his detectives had detained three men and two women for questioning in connection with the killing. Mendoza said his detectives also were examining a connection to another wounded man found in the same Florence-Firestone neighborhood Monday evening.

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Arroyos, 27, was on the force for three years and worked out of the Olympic Division. A mentor in the department described him as a smart Los Angeles native who had graduated from LAUSD schools and U.C. Berkeley before returning to L.A. to become a police officer and help the community.

LAPD Chief Michel Moore said Arroyos had just worked a series of days in patrol and had a day off on Monday, when he joined his girlfriend “on a hunt for a house, a place to live, a place to buy and invest in the city and in the future of this region.”

Moore said the couple had just parked their car and were crossing a street to look at a home when three suspects drove up, and there was an exchange of words — and gunfire — between the suspects and Arroyos.

“The officer yelled for his girlfriend to leave to run to go back to the car,” Moore said.

Police and investigators at a crime scene near parked cars on a street
Investigators at the scene in Florence-Firestone where an off-duty LAPD officer was killed Monday night.
(Al Seib / For The Times)

L.A. County Sheriff’s deputies from the Century station who arrived at the scene took the wounded officer in their patrol car to St. Francis Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead, officials said.

The killing sparked a massive response from law enforcement, with both the LAPD and the Sheriff’s department sending teams of investigators to the scene to begin trying to figure out what happened — and who did it.

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Moore said earlier that two weapons were recovered at the scene of the shooting, which unfolded about 9:15 p.m. Monday in the 8700 block of Beach Street in Florence-Firestone.

“We do have our officer’s gun, and we have an additional weapon that we believe was responsible for this assault,” Moore said.

Firetrucks and police cars in a procession for a slain LAPD officer
A procession for an off-duty LAPD officer, who was shot and killed during an armed robbery in South L.A., arrives at the L.A. County Coroner’s office Tuesday morning.
(KTLA)

LAPD Lt. Rex Ingram, who supervised Arroyos and spoke with him often at Olympic Division, said Arroyos had two dreams in life: to be first in his family to go to college and to be an LAPD officer, and that he more than achieved that.

“He could have gone to law school or FBI like his peers with that education, but he wanted to serve his community and give back,” Ingram said.

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