Los Angeles police said Saturday a suspected gunman is in custody 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 said.
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.
The suspect, who police is in his 20s, allegedly shot his grandmother and another woman before fleeing in a vehicle and being being pursued by police.
Police said as of 6:45 p.m. PT that the situation remains fluid.
Earlier, Sgt. Barry Montgomery said officers had been in communication with the suspect. Officers were “trying to get the suspect to surrender and bring this to a peaceful conclusion,” he said.
Officer Mike Lopez, a police spokesman, says the man had fled from the scene after the Saturday afternoon shooting in South Los Angeles.
He says officers tried to pull the man over and were led on a pursuit. Lopez says the suspect shot multiple rounds at officers during the chase but no officers were struck.
At least one officer returned fire.
Lopez says the man crashed outside of a Trader Joe’s supermarket in Silver Lake and then ran into the store. Some people were able to get out, but the suspect remained inside with others as of 4:45 p.m., CBS Los Angeles reports.
A 20-year-old woman has been taken to the hospital in fair condition, police said.
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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