Elderly man killed by police in Bel-Air was armed, threatening
A 75-year-old man fatally shot by police in Bel-Air early Sunday had first threatened a utility worker checking a gas leak in the area, police said.
Robert Bandler was killed about 3:30 a.m. Sunday in the 1200 block of Stone Canyon Road, where he was holding a shotgun from his second-story balcony when police arrived, KTLA-TV Channel 5 reported.
Arriving officers felt threatened and shot Bandler, police told CBS Los Angeles.
An investigation into the shooting is underway.
No officers were injured.
The utility worker was checking for a gas leak when he was confronted and threatened by Bandler, CBS reported. The worker then called police.
Neighbors told local media that the man was a Vietnam war veteran who was known for being odd but not violent.
“A Vietnam vet and an alcoholic, lot of issues, lot of demons, but basically harmless,” neighbor Stephen Verona told CBS. “He had a lot of guns but he never used them.”
Violent crime is rare in Bel-Air, which has had only three reported violent crimes in the last six months, according to The Times’ Crime L.A. database.
Since 2007, only three homicides have taken place within three miles of Sunday’s incident, none of them in the Bel-Air neighborhood.
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