One person is dead and three others have been hospitalised following a shooting during a drug deal outside a Los Angeles shopping centre Saturday. The shooting involving “multiple” people is being treated as “gang-related,” according to police.
Multiple suspects shot at each other during what police believe was a dispute during a narcotics deal in a parking lot in the area of Vanowen and Fallbrook in West Hills around 3:45pm, Los Angeles Police Department Deputy Chief Alan Hamilton said.
The deceased man has not yet been identified by police but he is believed to be a 45-year-old man.
Three victims hit by gunfire were transported to a hospital and treated for non-life-threatening injuries. At least two of those may face charges after their release from medical care, Hamilton said.
The injured victims were a 35-year-old woman, a 35-year-old man and a 45-year-old man.
During the dispute, “multiple suspects produced firearms and fired at each other” in the car park, according to the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD).
“We believe that all of the people involved in this dispute have been identified and we believe we have them in custody or we have them where we can provide them medical care,” Hamilton said.
Police recovered two firearms at the scene.
An LAPD helicopter spotted a vehicle with windows shot out leaving the scene and tracked the vehicle, the police chief revealed.
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“That suspect became involved in a hit-and-run traffic collision where they injured someone else and continued fleeing the area,” Hamilton said. “They subsequently switched vehicles and the air units saw them switch vehicles and directed ground units to the location where the suspect was fleeing.”
There was a pursuit lasting two to three minutes before the vehicle pulled over. A female driver and the male suspect who fled the shooting scene surrendered and were taken into custody, Hamilton said.
The person who was injured in the hit-and-run accident was treated for non-life-threatening injuries.
Hamilton said investigators believe the incident may be gang-related.
“Our preliminary investigation has revealed that the dispute centred around a narcotics transaction in the area,” he said during a press conference Saturday evening.
Adam Strickland who was coming out of a movie theatre told KTLA that he didn’t realise he was walking out onto a crime scene.
He said: “I heard a couple of pops and it didn’t even occur to me that they were gunshots until I saw people running down the parking lot.
“Behind me, I saw a couple people panicking and the guy who got shot just slowly fell to the ground and the people who were with him started panicking. A guy came in and started putting pressure on the guy’s wound.”
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