A search was under way Thursday for two men who ran off after the driver of the car in which they were riding was fatally shot by an LAPD officer near USC, police said.
The shooting occurred around 8:30 p.m. Wednesday, when two patrol officers from the Los Angeles Police Department's Southwest Station stopped a car carrying four men at Adams Boulevard and Budlong Avenue, said Officer Ana Aguirre, a department spokeswoman. Aguirre called it a "routine traffic stop."
After he stopped, the driver pointed a gun at the officers, prompting one of them to open fire, Aguirre said. No officers were hurt.
The wounded gunman drove eastbound on Adams Boulevard and turned right onto Menlo Avenue, colliding a short time later with a USC bus, she said, adding that neither the bus driver nor the 10 students in the vehicle were hurt.
The gunman's three passengers then bolted, running off in different directions and prompting police to establish a search perimeter, Aguirre said.
The critically wounded driver remained in the wreckage, and police summoned an ambulance to the scene, she said. The name of the man, who later died at a hospital, was withheld pending family notification.
Aguirre said police arrested one of the men who fled, but two remained at large. She said it does not appear they were involved in any crime immediately before fleeing from the crash scene.
The car's occupants were all in their mid to late 20s, Aguirre said.
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Because the shooting occurred just blocks from the USC campus, school police alerted students of the search for the occupants of the car that hit the bus.
