Glendale police kill robbery suspect

Paul M. Anderson

BOYLE HEIGHTS -- A Glendale Police officer shot and killed a man late

Tuesday night wanted in connection with last week’s shooting of a woman

at a Colorado Boulevard Ralphs supermarket.

The 22-year-old suspect was pronounced dead at County-USC Medical

Center about an hour after the shooting, which occurred when the man

allegedly tried to run down the Glendale Police officer with his Ford

Bronco in an East Los Angeles alleyway, said police spokesman Rick Young.

A 29-year-old Los Angeles woman who was in the passenger seat during

the incident suffered a shoulder injury and was booked on suspicion of

attempted murder, Young said.

The shooting was the culmination of an investigation that began

earlier Tuesday evening with the arrest in Temple City of another man in

connection with the Jan. 27 Ralph’s shooting.

In that incident, detectives said the suspects followed the woman from

an Eagle Rock hair salon as she deposited money from the business into

the Wells Fargo bank near Ralphs, Young said. The suspects stole just

under $3,000 from the woman, Young said.

She was shot four times, twice in the abdomen, once in an arm and once

in a leg, Young said. She remained in fair condition Wednesday at

Pasadena’s Huntington Memorial Hospital.

Glendale Police did not release the names of the dead man or the other

suspects in custody.

Investigators will present their case today to the District Attorney’s

Office. The male suspect is in custody at the Glendale city jail and the

woman is in County-USC’s jail ward. Both are being held on $500,000 bail.

As the truck barreled down on him in a dark Boyle Heights alley, a

17-year Police Department veteran shot and killed the man, Young said.

Investigators estimate the unnamed officer fired at least eight rounds at

the van as it approached. Young said the two officers in the alley were

wearing plainclothes with jackets identifying them as Glendale Police

officers.

Despite the fatal wounds, the suspect survived long enough to swerve

around the Glendale Police officer and lead a chase of up to 100 mph

through the alley, Young said. The chase ended some six blocks away when

the Bronco slammed into a telephone pole in the 2500 block of Houston

Street in Boyle Heights.

Glendale Police were in Los Angeles Tuesday night to check out some

leads they got in the investigation of the Ralphs armed robbery.

Young declined to say how they figured the suspects were in Los

Angeles, but one team of detectives went to Temple City and another

checked out known hangouts of the suspects in Boyle Heights.

Glendale Police were surprised to find one of the suspects, a

21-year-old man, in Temple City, Young said.

Police declined to name the suspects because they are looking for a

fourth and maybe more suspects, he said.

The second team of detectives came across the other two suspects in

the Ford Bronco in a dark alleyway between rows of houses, Young said.

When the suspect saw the officers he sped toward them.

“He was scared for his life so he fired several rounds into the

windshield,” Young said of the police officer. “He jumped out of the way

as the suspect’s vehicle raced by him, brushing alongside of him.”

Young declined to say how many times the officer fired his weapon or

where the suspect was hit. Glendale City Atty. Scott Howard said the

detective shot eight rounds.

Glendale police are expected to present their case to the Dist.

Atty’s office today, Young said. The two suspects are being held on

$500,000 bail, he added.

The LAPD is investigating the shooting, LAPD Det. Richard Haro said.

He declined to answer further questions.