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Deputies Kill Three Armed Suspects During Weekend

By Lorel Kane

| Thursday, Jan 7, 2010 | Updated 2:44 PM PDT

Deputies Kill Three Armed Suspects During Weekend

Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca conducted a news conference Monday morning to talk about a drop in violent crime in the county, just as his department launches an investigation into a violent weekend in which his deputies were involved in three fatal shootings.

The sheriff's department has reported 13 deputy-involved shootings this year, compared to just five last year.

The first of the recent shootings occurred at about 7 p.m. Saturday, when a 17-year-old boy allegedly ran from deputies in the 3100 block of Banning Avenue in Lynwood. He was fatally shot when he reached into his waistband, pulled out a handgun and pointed it at deputies, said Deputy Rick Pedroza of the Sheriff’s Headquarters Bureau.

The teenager was identified as Trevion Richard of Long Beach, said coroner’s investigator Larry Dietz. A handgun was recovered at the scene.

At 3 a.m. Sunday, a man was killed in Compton. The man, suspected of robbing a taco, ran to the on-ramp of Interstate 710 where he was confronted by three deputies. He was killed in an exchange of gunfire that resulted in one of the deputies being shot in the leg.

Later Sunday morning, around 8:55 a.m., a 24-year-old man was shot near a motel in Norwalk, said Deputy Ed Hernandez of the Sheriff's Headquarters Bureau. A 13-year-veteran deputy encountered a suspicious man in the parking lot of the Towne House Motel at 11650 Imperial Highway, a scuffle broke out as the deputy attempted to check the man for weapons, Hernandez said.

When the man broke away and tried to draw a loaded handgun from his waistband, the deputy shot him in the upper torso, he said. The man was pronounced dead at a hospital.

The deputy was not injured and a loaded handgun was recovered at the scene, Hernandez said.

Baca announced Monday that homicides in Los Angeles County areas patrolled by his department declined by 23.5 percent through Sept. 18, compared with the same period last year. Violent crimes overall dropped nearly 10 percent in those areas, and property crimes dropped by about 11 percent, said Nicole Nishida of the sheriff's department.

There were 153 homicides through Sept. 18 of this year, and 201 homicides in the same period in 2008.