Posted on 07/10/2005 9:58:17 PM PDT by SmithL
LOS ANGELES - Police officers shot a man and the 19-month-old infant he was carrying Sunday night when he emerged from a home and fired at them following an hours-long standoff, authorities said. The man was killed and it was unclear how badly the baby was injured.
The standoff began at around 3:45 p.m. when officers responded to an area west of Watts because residents reported a man behaving erratically and aggressively. The suspect, who was not immediately identified, fired at the officers and ran inside a home, taking at least two people hostage, LAPD spokeswoman Officer April Harding said.
Police called in a SWAT team and tried to speak with the man; he emerged at around 5:30 p.m. and began shooting at officers.
"At the time that he was firing those shots, he was holding a 19-month-old baby in his arms," LAPD Lt. Paul Vernon told KCAL-TV. "When officers fired in self-defense, the suspect went down, as well as the baby."
No additional information was immediately available, an LAPD spokesman said.
Gangland violence is getting out of control in SoCal.
Baby dead also.
Man, that just sucks.
I don't know what else to say.
No kidding, Ernest...I'm NOT looking forward to this summer.
I heard the baby died, as umgud reported....I'm mighty darn angry.
Oh no. Such a shame. I understand them protecting themselves, but...
This shooting should be vigorously and thoroughly investigated, as should all police actions that result in death, but cops don't just shoot at bad guys holding small children.
Anyway, there's no doubt that Jesse and Al are booking tickets to LA even as I type.
What kind of monster does this to a child?
If we could only turn back the hand of time......... to a point that someone could have killed this bastard first.
Don't they have a sharpshooter good enough to fire at 75 yards and not hit the baby?
When the perp is shooting at them they carry the baby, they do. I would expect them to retreat to prevent shooting the baby but if it is take a bullet or risk hitting the child, they had no choice. I just wonder why if SWAT was there, why didn't a sniper shoot him?
Prayers for the child.
My question too.
It would be helpful to know how many shots were fired at the perp and how many cops were shooting.
Truly a shame, but I can't fault the officers for returning fire when they're being shot at. One would assume that they would have been in positions safe enough to not have to worry about returning immediate fire instead of waiting for the snipers to take this guy out, but I'm sure that sort of thing will come out in the investigation. Takes a real coward to use a child as a shield.
I just wonder why if SWAT was there, why didn't a sniper shoot him?Maybe the best sniper was passed over for affimative action hiring.
TO the baby:
We love you!
TO the man:
Be nice and take the gifts if they can find you there.
The best sniper can pull a shot. I have pulled them under far less pressure. I mean if I miss a deer it seems like a big deal but it aint life or death. For the record I have never missed a deer. Just pulled the shot. They all went down.
This guy was under eal pressure.
" Gangland violence is getting out of control in SoCal."
According to CAL/GANG, a statewide database maintained by the California Department of Justice, LA Countywide, CAL/GANG estimates there are 1,108 gangs with 85,298 members. About 53,121 are members of predominantly Latino gangs, while the Crips, with 210 cliques, have 17,542. The numbers include those for the city of Los Angeles.
Los Angeles recorded 291 gang-related slayings last year, accounting for 57% of the city's 515 homicides. While other types declined last year, gang killings increased 12.4% over 2003. Furthermore, 172 gang-related killings occurred elsewhere in the county
Consider in Israel terror victims are about 200 per year from about 4000 terror attacks, while in LA in 2004 there were 291 Homicides and a total of 7,155 gang related crimes.
Population of Israel is 7 million while the population of LA county is 9 million.
However, a simple search for "Israel" and "terrorists" return about 3,000,000 hits on google, while "Los Angeles" and "gangs" return only 612,000 hits, OR ABOUT X5 as much as attention.
Not to minimize the problems of Israel, but where is our government and where is the press when it comes to addressing this sort of terrorism right here in our own home land!
http://www.lacp.org/2005-Articles-Main/LAGangsInNeighborhoods.html
http://www.frontpagemagazine.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=11784
arrrrgh! God bless the little one and may the cowardly b@stard be burning in 'ell already. And sorry for the person whose bullet hit the child - he will have a very difficult time getting past this, if he does.
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