[dropcap size=big]I[/dropcap]n seven days, Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) officers fired their guns at people six times. The unprecedented number of police shootings in Los Angeles—a city that averaged roughly one police shooting every two weeks last year—comes at a time when the country is already dealing with the aftermath of two tragic mass-shootings, and locally, Angelenos are seeing a rise in violent crime.
Last Tuesday, two people were shot by Los Angeles police officers in South L.A., less than two hours apart, and an LAPD SWAT officer was reportedly shot twice during a stand-off with a barricaded man reportedly suffering from a mental health crisis.
A third shooting occurred less than a day later when an off-duty Los Angeles police officer reportedly observed a drive-by shooting. “As the suspects drove in the officer's direction, an Officer-Involved Shooting occurred,” the department said in a written statement last week. LAPD policy generally prohibits officers from shooting at or from moving vehicles “unless a person in the vehicle is immediately threatening the officer or another person with deadly force by means other than the vehicle.”
Last Friday, two men were shot a few hours apart, during a chaotic afternoon when the department was also responding to two major vehicle collisions, including one that sent a TV news reporter and photographer to the hospital with injuries. The first police shooting involving a man reportedly armed with a hammer and a piece of metal occurred near MacArthur Park and resulted in a fatality. A few hours later, an incident that began as a traffic stop ultimately resulted in a man being shot by police after reportedly crashing into a house in El Sereno during a brief car chase.
And most recently, yesterday, a man was reportedly shot near the front door of the Olympic Division LAPD Station on Vermont Blvd and 11th Street on the border of Koreatown and Pico Union.