Police Shooting During Vehicle Stop
Early Friday morning at approximately 3:30 a.m., Los Angeles Police Department officers located a reportedly stolen Nissan Sentra near the intersection of 8th Street and Gladys Avenue.
Two individuals were inside the vehicle. While the driver complied with officers' instructions to exit, the passenger remained non-compliant.
"The front passenger was non compliant. He began manipulating items that were in front of him in the car, one of which was an apparent handgun, and an officer-involved shooting happened at that time," stated LAPD Captain Michael Bland.
Aftermath and Statistics
The passenger was transported to a hospital and reported to be in stable condition. The driver was taken into custody. No officers sustained injuries during the incident.
"We do acknowledge a significant increase in officer-involved shootings this year," Captain Bland remarked.
According to LAPD data current through December 8th, there have been 43 officer-involved shootings this year, with suspects struck by gunfire in 33 of those incidents. This represents an increase from 26 such shootings at the same point last year.
"With that officer-involved shooting increase, there's also an increase in the dangers and violence our officers are facing," Bland added.
Challenges for Law Enforcement
Bland explained that officers are increasingly encountering armed suspects, noting that "Officers are facing individuals with increased frequency who have handguns who are shooting at them - replica firearms or any other weapon that can cause serious bodily injury or death."
He emphasized the difficulty of these encounters, stating that "Those replica handguns or items that appear to be handguns are nearly indistinguishable from real firearms in rapidly escalating tense situations for officers. They are confronted with these dangers and violence and they have to make split-second life-or-death decisions for either them or their partners or the community members that we're out there serving."
The apparent weapon from Friday's incident was collected as evidence for analysis.
