Los Angeles police said Saturday a suspected gunman is in custody about three hours after taking hostages inside a Trader Joe’s in the Silver Lake neighborhood. There was at least one fatality, said Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti.
The woman was shot and killed inside the store, police said. They did not release her identity.
After the suspect was in custody, police said they were still recovering people inside as some people had barricaded themselves in different locations throughout the store. There were 40-50 people inside the store when the suspected gunman went inside.
The suspect, who police said is in his 20s, shot his grandmother as many as seven times. He also allegedly shot a woman.
Police said he pulled the woman into his grandmother’s car, and fled. Police pursued the suspect and he exchanged gunfire with them, they said.
A TraderJoe’s employee is comforted after a suspect barricaded inside the supermarket in Silverlake, Los Angeles, on July 21, 2018.
Robyn Beck / AFP/Getty Images
Police said he was wounded in the left arm, and then went into the Trader Joe’s. The suspect was in communication with police via phone and he released some hostages before surrendering.
Police said three women, including the woman killed inside the store, were shot. The grandmother has undergone surgery and her condition remains “very grave,” police said.
Police said as of 6:45 p.m. PT that the situation remained fluid.
A 91-year-old man is among those who escaped. Don Kohles was walking into the Trader Joe’s in the city’s Silver Lake section Saturday afternoon when a car being chased by police crashed into a pole just outside.
Kohles says police fired at the male driver and shattered the store’s glass doors. Kohles says he and others inside took cover and laid on the floor as the suspect ran inside.
Kohles says the man ran toward the back of the store and yelled at people inside but he never heard any more gunshots.
Kohles he was terrified and others around him were sobbing. After about 30 minutes, he says police came in and rushed them outside.
Lorraine Perrotta, who lives in the Silver Lake neighborhood, says she was getting ready to park her car Saturday afternoon when she heard gunshots.
Some witnesses took to social media.
Devin Field, a writer for “Jimmy Kimmel Live,” tweeted he was walking inside when a car crashed into the entrance and a man “got out shooting.”
Some people could be seen exiting the store through a side window and down a ladder.
President Trump tweeted Saturday he is watching the situation “very closely.”
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