LONG BEACH, Calif. — A potential rooftop gunman was shot and killed Saturday morning by officers with the Long Beach Police Department in California.
Officers responded just after 11 a.m. PDT to a 911 call about a dispute in a vehicle, which investigators later determined was a kidnapping, assault and attempted carjacking that left an unidentified victim hospitalized, the Long Beach Post reported.
Upon arrival, officers located a man in his 30s to 40s armed with a handgun atop an East 17th Street apartment building, according to the newspaper.
Despite multiple attempts by officers to de-escalate the situation – including the use of “less-lethal foam projectiles” – the man ultimately pointed his weapon at officers, prompting them to fatally fire upon him with their handguns and an AR-15 patrol rifle, police stated in a news release.
Officers in tactical gear just approached the man. He appeared to be unresponsive, and officers could be seen performing chest compressions on him after apparently dragging him away from his weapon. pic.twitter.com/jDUqENzcOJ
— Long Beach Post (@LongBeachPost) July 9, 2022
The Long Beach shooting comes six days after Robert “Bobby” Crimo III was accused of killing seven and wounding dozens of others after opening fire on the Highland Park Fourth of July parade from a nearby rooftop in the Chicago suburb.
Paramedics from the Long Beach Fire Department pronounced the gun-wielding man, who has not been identified publicly, dead at the scene, KTLA-TV reported.
“Further investigation revealed the man kidnapped, physically assaulted, and attempted to carjack a victim prior to officers arriving on scene. The (kidnapping) victim suffered non-life-threatening injuries to the upper body and was transported to a local hospital. No officers or additional community members were injured during the incident,” the news release stated.
A maintenance worker at the scene told the Post that he encountered the suspect as he approached the building. The witness, who asked not to be identified because the shooting rattled him, said the man climbed a ladder, which he kicked to the ground after reaching the roof.
According to KTLA, it remained unclear Sunday how many Long Beach officers fired on the man or how many times he may have been struck.
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