Robbery suspect shot dead on 405, closing freeway for hours

A robbery call in Westchester turned into a deadly freeway confrontation Friday when Los Angeles police said a suspect fired during a pursuit, then exited his black Kia Soul on the northbound 405 Freeway in Playa Vista with a handgun and was shot after refusing orders to drop it.

LAPD said the call came in around 4:15 a.m. in the 5800 block of West Manchester Avenue, where a Yellow Cab driver had allegedly been threatened with being shot during an attempted robbery. When officers arrived, the victim helped lead them to the suspect, described only as an adult male. Police said the driver refused commands, setting off a short pursuit that moved onto one of the region’s most heavily traveled corridors.

LAPD Capt. Mike Bland said the suspect opened fire during the chase, apparently toward officers, before stopping on the 405 near Howard Hughes Parkway. There, Bland said, the man got out of the car holding a handgun. Officers ordered him to drop the weapon, but he refused and was shot. He was taken to a hospital and later died. No other injuries were reported.

The shooting forced a near eight-hour closure of the northbound 405, from about 4 a.m. until just before 1 p.m., snarling traffic through the morning rush and into the early afternoon. Traffic was diverted off the freeway at Howard Hughes Parkway, close to Los Angeles International Airport and the dense neighborhoods of Playa Vista, where a police shooting on a major freeway can quickly ripple far beyond the immediate scene. LAPD said body-camera video would be released in the coming weeks, and investigators had not released the suspect’s name.

The deadly chase was one of two major pursuits that rattled Los Angeles-area freeways Friday. In a second incident, California Highway Patrol officers chased a man they said was wanted in connection with a possible carjacking. That pursuit began in Fontana, lasted roughly two and a half hours, and moved westbound on the 10 Freeway through the San Gabriel Valley and into Los Angeles before ending in Lynwood.

CHP said the driver was in a white pickup truck, ran red lights, drove on the wrong side of the road and at times made gestures out the window. Officers tried spike strips and a PIT maneuver before boxing in the truck. When the suspect ran on foot, a K-9 latched onto him and brought him down. No innocent bystanders or officers were injured in that chase, but the twin pursuits underscored how quickly police decisions on crowded freeways can threaten everyone nearby.