LA Times – by VERONICA ROCHA, KATE MATHER AND KATIE SHEPHERD
Paul Gilmartin was sitting inside a Studio City coffee shop Friday afternoon when people started shouting about gunfire.
He went outside and saw people running down Ventura Boulevard, away from a curly haired man holding a gun. The man fired two shots into the air, Gilmartin said, then two more toward the ground.
As the man sat on a brick ledge outside a Union Bank, he looked calmly from side to side, Gilmartin said.
“It was so bizarre,” he said. “He looked like he was just waiting for the cops.”
Officers soon pulled up and took cover behind their patrol car doors, yelling for the man to drop the gun, Gilmartin said. When the man raised his weapon, Gilmartin jumped behind a tree.
Gunshots rang out. When Gilmartin looked up, he said, he saw the man slumped over in a flower bed.
Chaos erupted along the busy stretch of Ventura Boulevard about 3:20 p.m., when police received reports of a man with a gun near Vantage Avenue. Terrified witnesses peered out of store windows and from behind cars as police fired on the man, who died at the scene.
But the drama continued even after the gunfire stopped. Helmet-clad police officers swarmed the scene. Rumors swirled that the man had robbed a bank. (That was not the case, authorities said.) Buildings were evacuated as an LAPD robot examined at least two items near the man’s body that police feared were explosive.
By Friday night, it was still unclear who the man was or why he opened fire, Los Angeles police said. Ventura Boulevard was closed for hours as investigators combed the scene.
“A lot will depend on making this identification and then working backwards,” Det. Meghan Aguilar said. “Who was this person and what drew him here?”
Aguilar said the man was struck by police gunfire but it was unclear whether he might also have had self-inflicted wounds.
No other injuries were reported, though police said a female officer stationed at the perimeter of the scene was treated for a heat-related illness.
Ken LaZebnik watched from the front door of his office as the police robot scooted around the man’s body, picking up a metal cylinder and taking it to a nearby driveway. LaZebnik saw a puff of smoke and heard a loud noise — like an M-80 firecracker, he said — and the object was destroyed.
The robot returned to the man’s body, LaZebnik said, and appeared to examine it with a camera. Later, he said, the robot dragged away a black briefcase and detonated it as well.
Aguilar said the LAPD’s bomb squad detonated an object near the man’s body that “appeared to be explosive in nature” but wasn’t. She said the bomb squad also examined the man for any possible explosives before officers approached and confirmed he was dead.
No explosives were found, she said, but a handgun was recovered at the scene. Aguilar said investigators were speaking with witnesses and looking for surveillance cameras that may have captured the incident.
As with all LAPD shootings, the incident will be reviewed by the district attorney’s office, the Police Commission and its inspector general.
It was not clear how many officers fired. Witnesses said they heard two shots; three can be heard on video taken at the scene.
Wyatt Torosian filmed some of the aftermath, showing an officer pointing his gun at the man’s body crumpled over the brick ledge. Torosian said he watched the shooting from inside a nearby Starbucks.
When the gunfire broke out, he said, panicked customers ran from the windows and hid behind the coffee bar.
“It was surreal,” he said. “It seemed like something out of the movies.”
veronica.rocha@latimes.com
kate.mather@latimes.com
katie.shepherd@latimes.com
Studio City? Lol.
LoL, I get it, what better a place to stage something?
‘Seemed like something out of the movies’, indeed!
-Wake me up when something ‘real’ happens…
This one is probably true. There are a LOT of stupid people in L.A. (and surrounding areas). It’s one of a number of reasons I left.
If he was going to go out like that, the least the stupid SOB could have done was to take out a pig or two in the process.
Gene pool cleansing is inevitable, however.
Death by cop.
Wonder if they went to his house and shot his dog too.
probably, and raped his kids
Studio shooter, shooting in the air and at the ground. Studio cops with blanks?
Expect staged shootings on a daily basis as more and more gun control laws are legislated.
Got it from AP! And it’s definitely just an Obama spook:
Police in Arkansas have released an audio tape in which a man tells an emergency dispatcher that he is on the Arkansas State University campus with gasoline, propane and a shotgun with only one shell.
Jonesboro police say Brad Bartelt drove his truck onto a campus plaza in a threatening manner Thursday. On Friday, officers said Bartelt had called 911 himself.
On the tape, the man identified as Bartelt said he didn’t intend to use any weapons but asked that officers and the news media be sent to the scene. Initially, the 911 operator didn’t know where to send first-responders.
Bartelt said he didn’t know which buildings he was near and wasn’t familiar with the area. The operator told him that if the police couldn’t find him quickly, she wanted him to look for the name of a building and call her back
“He went outside and saw people running down Ventura Boulevard, away from a curly haired man holding a gun. The man fired two shots into the air, Gilmartin said, then two more toward the ground.”
Yes, because crazy people with guns fire two shots in the air and two more towards the ground just for fun.
Unfrigginbelievable….
“As the man sat on a brick ledge outside a Union Bank, he looked calmly from side to side, Gilmartin said.
“It was so bizarre,” he said. “He looked like he was just waiting for the cops.””
Well gee….it is Hollywood. Maybe he was a false flag actor waiting for someone to say, “CUT!”. Ever think of that?
Just love how people immediately say, “Terrorist!” every time they see someone with a gun. It’s like a natural reaction now, thanks to the MSM conditioning. Hope the MSM burns in Hell.
““It was surreal,” he said. “It seemed like something out of the movies.””
DUH! You’re in Hollywood and you didn’t stop to think that it might have been a scene from a movie they were filming and some idiot didn’t tell anyone?
Don’t worry, everyone. Nothing to see here. Just another drill/training exercise for the LAPD to condition the masses.