Three police officers were hospitalized in stable condition Wednesday evening after they were shot by a suspect during an investigation in Lincoln Heights. The suspect was found dead several hours later, police said.
The shooting took place some time after 6 p.m. near the intersection of Mission Road and North Broadway in the Lincoln Heights neighborhood.
Video from Sky5 showed a large perimeter set up around the scene for what appeared to be a barricaded suspect.
Police said that officers had been in the area as part of a felony investigation of a parolee at large. They observed the suspect walking down the alley, and then go into a residence.
Police then set up a perimeter and a police K-9 unit was called to the scene.
The suspect was located in a small room in the bottom of the main house. Officers called out to the suspect, but he refused to surrender. Eventually, a chemical agent was deployed in an attempt to get the suspect to come out peacefully.
“Unfortunately, that suspect responded to that chemical agent by…opening fire on the officers,” LAPD Commander Stacy Spell said at a news conference. “The officers then returned fire and as a result of that, three officers from the Metropolitan K-9 Unit were struck.”
The suspect went back into the home where he remained as additional police and SWAT teams arrived to the scene and a citywide tactical alert was declared.
Around 8:10 p.m., SWAT officers could be seen approaching a home. At one point, an elderly man and a child were escorted out of the home.
An LAPD robot was visible in an alleyway behind the house and eventually made entry. Around 8:45 p.m., another round of tear gas was deployed where the man was holed up.
SWAT officers made entry shortly after.
“As they conducted a search of that area, they located the suspect, who was at that time non-responsive,” Cmdr. Spell said.
Personnel with the Los Angeles Fire Department responded to the scene and declared the suspect dead.
He was identified as Jonathan Magaña, 32, of Los Angeles.
According to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, Magaña was sentenced in May 2011 to two years, eight months in prison from Los Angeles County for possession of ammunition by a former felon. He was released in 2013 with his probation ending in 2017. Three years later, in 2020, he was sentenced to five years for two counts of second-degree robbery. While in prison, he received several credits under good conduct and program participation guidelines, and was again released on parole in April 2022.
Los Angeles Police Department Chief Michel Moore confirmed that all officers are in stable condition.
Gov. Gavin Newsom also weighed in on the shooting, saying, “We are grateful to hear the officers involved are in stable condition. As they recover, our hearts are with them, and their families.”
The officers suffered various injuries, including one officer who was shot in the abdomen, another who was shot in the arm and the third who was hit in the leg and midsection.
None of the K-9 officers’ dog partners were hurt.
Officials, including Mayor Karen Bass, updated the public outside County USC Medical Center, where the mayor said she’d spoken to two of the wounded officers.
“I think that it was just important for me to be here. This is a place that is familiar to me. I used to work here in the emergency room, in trauma, and so to go back to the emergency room now to try to bring comfort and support to officers was something that was very important and meaningful to me,” Bass said.
Bass added that she spoke with two of the officers, and their first question was about the status of their fellow officer.
“It is worth repeating that we must do much, much more to protect our officers and protect our communities,” she said.
The area near Mission Road and North Broadway in the Lincoln Heights neighborhood remains an active investigation scene as of Thursday morning.