A robbery suspect armed with a machete was shot and killed by police in Hollywood Monday after he carjacked a vehicle then crashed into two police cruisers, the Los Angeles Police Department said.
The incident began around 11:30 a.m., when police said they received a call about the machete-wielding man robbing an auto parts store in the area of Sunset Boulevard and Highland Avenue.
“He walks in and goes over to the batteries and he grabs one, then he walks over to the door and he slams it on the ground and pulls out the machete and he threatens and swings it at us,” Juan Chaidez, an employee at AutoZone, told KTLA. “Then he grabbed the battery and runs away.”
The man then walked over to the nearby Chick-fil-A, according to witnesses, and began threatening customers and carjacked a male driver in the drive-thru.
“As he’s running with the machete, he’s pretty much got the cops chasing down,” said Clinton Gunnels, who witnessed the incident. “They kind of gave him a second to surrender, but he highjacked a car and then the driver hops out of the car, and that’s when he hopped over to the driver’s seat and that’s when he drove off.”
A witness video shows the man driving away in the customer’s black car, stopping a short distance from the drive-thru and crashing into two LAPD cruisers. The footage then shows the armed man exiting the car with the machete and running away from officers.
The unidentified man was chased by officers who used less lethal options, but he was ultimately shot by officers, police said in a tweet.
The man was taken to a local hospital, where he later died.
An LAPD officer suffered minor injuries to his elbow and knee while chasing the armed man, police said. The officer was treated at the scene.
The shooting remains under investigation.
The area of Sunset Boulevard, between Las Palmas and Cherokee, remained closed as of 10 p.m.
KTLA’s Nidia Becerra contributed to this story.
3/3 The Suspect was transported to a nearby hospital where he was pronounced deceased. An LAPD Officer sustained minor injuries to his elbow and knee and was treated at scene. The area of Sunset Blvd between Las Palmas & Cherokee will remain closed as the investigation continues.
— LAPD Hollywood Division (@LAPDHollywood) November 26, 2019
