A knife-wielding suspect and an American woman were killed by police gunfire.
The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) has released a video showing officers fatally shooting a knife-wielding suspect and an innocent hostage in June, ABC7 reported.
The LAPD released the video at a press conference on the morning of July 31, taken from a body camera.
The incident occurred on June 16, when police in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Van Nuys received a report that a man had stabbed his ex-girlfriend, LAPD Chief Michel Moore said.
Upon arrival, officers confronted Guillermo Perez outside a church on Tyrone Avenue. Perez was holding a metal chair and a large knife, Moore said.
Police ordered Perez to drop the knife, but he refused. That’s when police fired plastic bullets at Perez.
“He turned and grabbed an innocent bystander. Perez began to slash the woman’s throat with the knife. That’s when three officers fired at Perez to stop him and stop him from killing the hostage,” the LAPD chief said.
Perez was shot and killed at the scene. The innocent woman, Elizabeth Tollison, 49, was shot twice by police and later died at a hospital, Moore said.
Moore said they would have to investigate the incident before he could comment on the actions of the officers involved. The investigation would look into whether protocol was followed.
The LAPD chief said it had been 13 years since an officer had fatally shot an innocent bystander or hostage.
But in the past six weeks, it has happened twice. The most recent incident was at a Trader Joe’s in Silver Lake, where a store manager was shot and killed by police during a shootout between the LAPD and a suspect. “It was a tense situation that escalated very quickly,” Moore said. “It’s every cop’s worst nightmare.”
