________________________
________________________
February 19, 2022
State prosecutors will investigate the killing of a man outside a Norwalk home where a holed-up gunman was shot by L.A. County sheriff’s deputies.
NORWALK, Calif. (KABC) — State prosecutors will investigate the killing of a man outside a Norwalk home where a holed-up gunman was shot by Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies, authorities said.
A sheriff’s special enforcement team went into the residence after a standoff early Friday and arrested the gunman inside, the sheriff’s department said in a news release.
The gunman, who was not identified, was hospitalized with multiple gunshot wounds, the statement said.
Deputies also found a 67-year-old man lying in the yard of the house with trauma wounds to his upper torso, sheriff’s officials said. He died at the scene and was later identified as Pedro Lopez.
Authorities did not say whether the gunman was suspected in Lopez’s death.
Detectives collected evidence at the scene and are awaiting ballistic testing to determine the source of the fired bullet that struck the victim who was determined to be an uninvolved bystander,” deputies said.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta’s office announced Friday night that it was launching an independent investigation into the death of the man.
“It has not yet been determined how the decedent was shot and killed. Given this uncertainty, the California Department of Justice is treating the incident as an AB 1506 qualifying event,” the attorney general’s office said in a statement, referring to Assembly Bill 1506.
State law requires the attorney general’s office to independently investigate all fatal law enforcement shootings of unarmed civilians to determine whether criminal charges should be filed against officers involved.
