Pursuit Driver Rammed Officer's Car Before Burbank Police Shooting, Investigators Say

A man wanted in connection with a kidnapping report was shot by police at the end of a brief high-speed pursuit Thursday morning in Burbank.

Streets near Victory Boulevard and Pass Avenue were closed early Thursday for an investigation into the officer-involved shooting. No officers were injured. The subject was hospitalized with minor injuries, police said.

Burbank Police Sgt. Claudio Losacco said the department received a report early Thursday from a woman who said she was the victim of kidnapping. An officer located the vehicle described by the woman, a white pickup, as the driver left a 99 Cent store.

The officer attempted to stop the driver, but a high-speed pursuit ensued, Losacco said. The driver went through several red lights and high speed, he added.

After the westbound pursuit on Victory Boulevard, the officers conducted a traffic stop and planned call on the 21-year-old driver to exit the vehicle, police said in a statement. Instead, the pickup driver put the truck in reverse and crashed into the officer's vehicle, Losacco said.

"The vehicle backed up and rammed the police car, and an officer-involved shooting took place," said Losacco.

Video showed what appeared to be at least one bullet hole in the pickup's windshield. The driver was struck by one round that appeared to have gone through the driver's seat, police said.

He was later identified as 21-year-old Arthur Papiyan, arrested on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon, the pickup, on a police officer. Bond was set at $50,000. He is due in court Monday.

It was not immediately clear whether the suspect obtained legal counsel.

He was not booked in connection with the kidnapping report, which was received from a 36-year-old woman at the 99 Cent Store on Victory Boulevard. She told investigators she had just left a house party in South Los Angeles when a man offered her a ride. The man passed the correct freeway exit, then placed a rag over her face, according to the police statement.

"The next thing she recalls is being out of the truck, near railroad tracks," police said in a statement.

She was not injured. Investigators are attempting to verify her account of the kidnapping, according to the police statement.