Deputy shoots armed man suspected of being drug dealer, officials say

A sheriff’s deputy shot and wounded a suspected drug dealer early Sunday in South Los Angeles after the suspect pointed a gun at the officer, authorities said.

The shooting occurred about 3:45 a.m. near the intersection of Main and 118th streets, according to a statement from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. Deputies had received reports of the possibly armed man in a nearby alleyway.

When deputies arrived at the scene, one officer got out of the patrol car and approached the man, according to the sheriff’s statement.

The suspect then pulled out a firearm and pointed it at the deputy, according to the statement. The deputy then fired at the man and hit him once in the midsection. The man was taken to a hospital, authorities said. His condition was not immediately available.

The deputy was not injured, said sheriff’s Sgt. J. Mosquera.

Sheriff’s detectives were investigating the shooting, which was the second deputy-involved shooting over the weekend.

At about 7:10 a.m. Saturday, a sheriff’s deputy shot and killed a gunman who wounded another officer during an earlier confrontation in Southeast Los Angeles.

The 31-year-old man had shot and wounded a transit police deputy earlier Saturday near Pacific Boulevard and Grand, authorities said. He then fled on foot.

Deputies assisted by search dogs later located the man on Grand, a residential street about a block and a half east of the first shooting. When he pulled out a gun, a special enforcement deputy shot and killed him, said Lt. Holly Francisco of the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department.

Paramedics pronounced the man dead at the scene. His identity was not immediately released.

The deputy who was shot was being treated for an injury described as not life-threatening, Francisco said.

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