By Stefanie Dazio, AP
Los Angeles police fatally shot a 14-year-old girl who was in a clothing store dressing room Thursday when officers fired on an assault suspect and a bullet went through the wall and struck the girl, authorities said.
Police also fatally shot the suspect Thursday morning at a Burlington store in the North Hollywood area of the San Fernando Valley, police said.
Witnesses told KCBS-TV that a man began acting erratically, threatening to throw items from the upper floor, and attacked a woman with a bicycle lock shortly before noon as the store was crowded with holiday shoppers.
Officers answered a report of an assault and others of shots being fired, police said. Investigators have not found a gun at the scene.
The suspect was shot and died at the store but one of the bullets went through drywall behind the man and killed the girl, who was in a changing room with her mother, police said.
Officers found the teenager dead after seeing a hole in “a solid wall that you can’t see behind,” LAPD Assistant Chief Dominic Choi said.
Investigators didn’t immediately know whether she was in the dressing room before the violence began or ran in there to hide, he said.
“This chaotic incident resulting in the death of an innocent child is tragic and devastating for everyone involved,” Police Chief Michel Moore said in a statement late Thursday night. “I am profoundly sorry for the loss of this young girl’s life and I know there are no words that can relieve the unimaginable pain for the family.”
Moore promised a “thorough, complete and transparent investigation” into the shooting and said a critical incident video that will include 911 calls, body camera and other video will be released by Monday.
The names of the girl and the suspect weren’t immediately released, and the woman who was attacked is not being identified.
Investigators were trying to determine whether the assault was random or targeted. Choi said they don’t believe the teenager was related to the person who was attacked.
Police found a heavy metal cable lock near the suspect, Choi said.
The California Department of Justice was investigating the shooting, Attorney General Rob Bonta said.
News reports showed a woman with a bloodied face, who appeared to be the assault victim, being placed in an ambulance.
The victim was taken to the hospital with moderate to serious injuries, Fire Department spokesperson Nicholas Prange said. Choi said she had wounds to her head, arms and face.
The shooting recalled a July 21, 2018, confrontation in which LAPD officers accidentally shot and killed a woman at a Trader Joe’s market. Officers got into a gunfight with a man who authorities say shot his grandmother and girlfriend before leading police on a chase that ended when he crashed his car outside the market.
A police bullet killed Melyda Corado, 27, the assistant store manager, as she ran toward the store’s entrance after hearing the car crash.
The suspect, Gene Evin Atkins, took employees and shoppers hostage for three hours before surrendering, authorities said.
Atkins has pleaded not guilty to the killing.
Prosecutors found two police officers acted lawfully when they returned Atkins’ gunfire.
And put the blame for this surely where it belongs…..on Garcetti and his pet thugs!
The police weren’t confident enough to take on one guy with a bike lock without using their guns?
Disarm the police. Give them night sticks only. And the training to use them.
Heh. I just attempted to buy a nightstick from optics planet (PR-24, as a less that lethal option), and I was *denied* because I’m not an active LEO.
Guess I’m back to 17 rounds of 9mm as my primary defense. Thanks, retards.
The Libertarians Liberals and the Left have a lot of explaining to do. The police nightstick was an effective less than lethal tool. Which all three demanded the police not have. As the film states in the very beginning.
The “officer draws his nightstick instead of his gun”.
The suspects are beaten. And taken into custody. Alive and not shot to death.
Based on the make and model of the cop cars in this training video. I’d say this police training film was created in the early 1960s.
“Proper Use of the Police Baton or Nightstick” video 18 min long
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfvWAz_qMcI
You know you can carve your favorite style of night stick in a week or so? Call it a month, if you aren’t in practice. Note that I didn’t say in an afternoon – hardwoods don’t carve like cheap white pine. You can even choose to use hickory, maple, oak, whatever you like. Even mahogany. Weights aren’t recommended, but that would only take another couple days if you restrict yourself to hand tools. Then, you would have a one-of-a-kind, hand-crafted finely tooled weapon of mass head lumping.
Right? What’s the point of getting them all these fancy Batman utility belts of gear, if they’re always just going to start blasting wildly into crowds every time something goes wrong?
They should be disarmed. Give them tasers and pepper spray.
Nightsticks are a far superior less than lethal tool. Historically, big city police officers would carry night sticks first. Before they would carry a gun. And they were very effective. And most criminal suspects survive their encounter with the police.
Watch the first 5 minutes.
From 2011
Defensive Baton Basics: “Move Fast, Hit Hard” by Nutnfancy, video 26 min long
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7henFkOWdTU&t=24s
Yea sure, stop a bullet with a baton or pepper spray. Knucklehead.
If I thought giving their victims pepper spray would stop cops from murdering them, I’d advocate for that, sure.
That is exactly what I thought, too.
hmmmm. should the cop be looking at manslaughter charges like the one just convicted of mistaking her Firearm for a taser? seems just as careless not knowing what is beyond your target. am I wrong?
Pulling your gun instead of your taser is far worse than a bullet going through a wall and hitting a bystander.
Part of proper training is recognizing what your backstop is. That means being aware of what is beyond your target. I understand that there are times when you only have a split second, but this does not sound like one of those instances. Having just a bike lock would have earned you a butt kicking on my old school bus, so I don’t know why these policemen can only use their service weapon. Sounds like bad hiring and bad training to me.
I want to hear that the bullet which killed that girl passed through the body of the perp first. Such a thing at least SHOULD be far more likely that a cop firing at and missing a perp with a bicycle lock.
The state is investigating. We will see.
Manslaughter 1 and 2. The process should be similar to Kim Potter’s trial
Any blame should be put on the criminal that caused the trouble in the first place.
Know your target and what’s beyond. Seems like I’ve heard that before, yes I’m sure of it, that’s a gun safety rule.
Rule 4. As with Rules 1 – 3, it exists for a reason.
I instruct Rule 4 as “…situational awareness … know your target and what is beyond. Also includes 180° side spread to the target…”
You can’t take enough instruction.
AND shooting like playing a guitar, is a perishable skill.
Dont worry, police are held to a lower standard, and rules like that do not apply to them.
It’s okay guys…
The internal investigation will handle this…
Knowing what is beyond your target is a fine rule, also completely impossible inside a commercial building which is open for business. Essentially any wall you see, a bullet will penetrate with enough energy remaining to kill. We need to find something more sensible to criticize than “OOoo! Mommy! The P0-lice man broke a rule!”
We’re pretty much ensuring the only cops left within a decade will be sadistic psychopaths.
Who else would want the job?
Gonna be lots of fun for everyone.
And? Who sez the ranks aren’t filled with your description now?!? Us lowly civilians need to know where every round goes. Why doesn’t this inept cop know that?!?
Criminal throws the first punch and starts the ball rolling and those dealing with the perp mess up unintentionally and get arrested and windup going to prison. And then comes along poop for brains like art out west who wholeheartedly agree with such witch hunts.
Should have been a defensive gun use instead of the sloppy police getting in the way! All though it was also in Commiefornia….
I believe two things with regard to this
1) LA chaos is getting worse resulting in a city we are watching tear itself apart as a direct result of liberal leadership.
2) If more people in the general population were carrying firearms, there is a pretty good chance this incident here would have ended much quicker with far fewer shots fired.
The state can kill you to protect government property. But you can’t kill to protect your private property. If you shoot someone by accident you will be prosecuted by the state. Not so much with a cop. On TTAG we have covered many stories over the years, where cops shot innocent people. Sometimes killing them. And they were never prosecuted. In fact they were returned to duty.
The law should be changed. You should be able to kill to protect your private property. Just like any agent of the government.
Ah…..no.
Please explain why the state is the only one allowed to kill?
We certainly would have a smaller government if more people were allowed to kill. There would be a fewer need for the courts. Our jails and prisons would have a much smaller population of prisoners. It save the tax payer $$$.
The Libertarians Liberals and the Left want to abolish the prison system completely in the United States.
Because to Progressives the criminal is the true victim of an unjust society and we as members of this society have to be punished. Anything that happens to us is our own fault.
The mind of a Progressive is truly a dark and twisted place that would make Tim Burton’s nightmares look same.
Please explain why the state is the only one allowed to kill?”
That is simply a fallacy. You are allowed to kill in defense of self and others. Usually to stop arson and in general, most other forcible felonies. Varies from state to state. If you have any doubts, don’t.
Just a note: The state only has the authority to kill because the people have assigned a measure of their right to keep and bear arms and to use said arms to the state. The state has no authority except what is assigned to it by the people.
Ahhhh, yes.
So some kid filching a couple of apples off your tree in the front yard is a clean shoot? Before you say that’s just ridiculous, think about some of the people you know.
to huntmaster
What does this “2A” country look like when the entire country does not support the police anymore??? Or at least large sections of it don’t support the cops.
Libertarians should really think about the wishes they make. They might come true.
Yo, Chris! Been watching the news?
Yes I have. And I wonder is this just “policing the police theater”?
Agreed. Cops have been indifferent to the injustices of the citizenry for far too long because of their “immunity” given to them by their corrupt overlords, (politicians, court system, etc.). Now that these corrupt overlords are throwing them under the bus…they don’t like it so much.
Bike locks are a favorite weapon of California Left wingers.
Commonly used by antifa along with the “quick-shake”.
Don’t forget skateboards.
Cops used to be really big tough guys. Minimum height and weight requirements pretty much ensured that. Then, in order to get a more diverse group of people they lowered those requirements to put women on the force. Of course you can’t have one set of requirements for women and another for men so police forces simply became smaller. Much smaller. Smaller police aren’t as physically dominating or strong and can’t mix it up quite so much so no they have to go to the gun sooner. Before the get their asses handed to them. It isn’t rocket science.
“Cops used to be really big tough guys. Minimum height and weight requirements pretty much ensured that. Then, in order to get a more diverse group of people they lowered those requirements to put women on the force.”
The same reasoning was behind adopting 9mm handguns. The “new breed of cop” couldn’t handle the recoil and weight of a .357 magnum. Now more rounds are fired because of lax training standards, endangering innocents. I’ve seen cops at the range; they are trained to put as much lead and copper down range as they can. Accuracy is a secondary consideration, at best.
I absolutely refuse to visit malls or shops in a large city. I’ll pay more to have it delivered to where I live in the boonies, or just do without. We are witnessing the unraveling of our civilization. Blame it all on the Democrats.
Not all. Probably most.
Few people choose 6 rounds of .357 over 15+ rounds of 9mm for EDC.
Size/strength to handle recoil is a reason why the FBI made the Fed-light 10mm load over full 10mm, which then led to the .40 S&W that had identical ballistics in a shorter case.
Something people fail to consider about those height and weight requirements… it didn’t just keep out the runts. There was a top end to the requirements too. I can remember guys who played college football and were in great shape, but to join the police department they had to lose 25 pounds because they were outside of the accepted height and weight requirements.
What was the rationale if weights were healthy?
I knew an Air Force Pilot in the same circumstance, he was a powerlifter and no one wanted to tell him to his face that he was overweight, similar to a block pf granite and a yard wide. But he went through pure hell getting a waiver due to specific gravity or whatever, he was about 2% body fat, and the waiver was only for a couple years before he had to go thru it all again. Ridiculous, his boss (which was me) should have been able to look at him and sign a waiver on the spot.
I live in CA. They let these blacks just run wild here- especially after the BLM riots.
Women should not be cops. They don’t have the physical or emotional strength to do it.
I’m tired of “Democrats are the real racists”. When you live around them, you start to see the truth. This guy should have been locked up a long time ago- not threatening people with bike locks.
Get ready for a lot more of this as Officer Friendly is replaced with an incompetent diversity hire and blacks get fed anti-white propaganda from the mainstream media.
What is the truth? I’m seeing places run by Democrats self-destructing.
Every crisis over the last two years, from the government over-reaction to COVID, the the BLM insurrection, to the “defunding of police,” to the election of “progressive” DA’s, can all fall under the heading “How Women Destroy Civilizations.” It is toxic femininity, not toxic masculinity, that is destroying this county. The ironic and insane desire “to feel safe at all times” crossed with unwarranted pity for criminals will be the death of us all.
Pelosi
Hillary Clinton
Fienstien
AOC
Tahlib
Harris
Lightfoot
Warren
Shiela Jackson Lee
etc.
but to be fair here, there are quite a few males pushing pretty hard for destruction too
Males, yes. Men, no.
Harsh………..accurate as can be but you probably hurt some male feelings there.
LAPD: “we need moar fundings!!$$$!”
Earth: “yeah, no.”
Instead of calling them Progressive District Attorneys. You should call them libertarian District Attorney’s. Because they are implementing libertarian policy. Which the Libertarians have been discussing for decades now.
I can’t help but wonder what percentage of LA cops are shoot-em-up video game alumni.
I have learned a great deal from the hard 2 hurt channel. Lots of non lethal stuff. I think the Italian police use whips.
Testing the Stinger Tactical Whip (Spoiler: It Hurts) | Better Than a Baton, video 11 min long
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6my9mtRIeCg&t=485s
Another day, another fustercluck, and another dead kid.
Haven’t you had enough of this sh!t?
Disarm the police. There was no rational reason for the American police officer to carry firearms. Civilians have more guns and better guns and the police and military combined. The law-abiding civilians can take care of themselves. Change the laws so the law-abiding can do what is necessary. They don’t need the police.
Man that sux.
I bet Christmas will never be the same for the parents.
I vote for a live, happy girl. I don’t care about the people in the altercation. Their problems should never, ever, have become her last problem.
Take away their guns and issue them BolaWrap — it fires a cord that wraps around what it hits and clings. I tried to find the original video I watched of it being used, but failed — it showed the thing being used against people walking, jogging, running away, and running toward the officer armed with the BolaWrap, and it takes them all down.
“Stray round” when a JBT does it, “negligent discharge” when a peasant does it.
If the round did not pass through the perp, the officer should be charged with negligent homicide, at least. There would be absolutely no excuse for missing in this situation.
The rules of a gunfight in the real world cannot include the rule to always know what is behind your target. There is no way to know what is behind your target, obscured behind a wall, in a place like that.
However- when you choose to turn a situation into a gunfight in such a place (rather than react to being fired upon) that’s a bit less understandable.
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