LAPD Toddler killed in shootout

The Los Angeles Police Department defends its actions.
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- A toddler girl was shot and killed when her intoxicated father used her as a shield during a fiery gunbattle with police after a standoff that lasted three hours, authorities said.
Police Chief William Bratton said Monday that his officers were well within department policy when they shot car wash owner Jose Raul Lemos on Sunday. Lemos also was killed; an officer was shot in the shoulder but was expected to recover.
"You aren't going to stand there with somebody shooting at you," Bratton said. "The person responsible for any loss of life ... was the individual who held his child out as a shield and continued to shoot."
The 19-month-old child's mother, Lorena Lopez, said she pleaded with officers to hold their fire.
"He had problems with depression; his business was not doing well," Lopez told KNBC-TV. "I told them that he needed help; he needs a psychologist, but please don't shoot. They didn't understand, and the police fired, like, 300 shots."
Protection
Autopsies will determine whether the bullet that killed the toddler was fired by police or her father. Police spokesman Kevin Maiberger said 11 officers fired during the standoff, but it was not immediately known how many shots they took.
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said the officers were only trying to protect themselves and the public.
The standoff started when officers were called to an intersection in South Los Angeles west of Watts where Lemos was behaving erratically and aggressively.
He fired at the officers and ran inside a fenced area that included his apartment and his car wash and detailing business. He had a 9 mm handgun and a shotgun and was intoxicated on drugs and alcohol, police said.
Police called in a SWAT team and tried to talk to the man. At one point, as officers helped a neighbor escape, he fired at them and they fired back, police said.