los angeles Police kill man with gun on busy street

Associated Press

LOS ANGELES

A man with a gun was fatally shot by Los Angeles police Friday in a busy shopping district in the San Fernando Valley, authorities said.

The shooting occurred after police responded to a call of a man with a gun on Ventura Boulevard in Studio City, Los Angeles police Detective Meghan Aguilar said.

Police had worried there might be a bomb attached to the body or to suspicious devices nearby, but the bomb squad cleared the area and no explosives were discovered.

A handgun was found, Aguilar said.

Terry Burstein, 53, of Studio City, California, told The Associated Press that she was headed to her job as a real estate agent about 3 p.m. and pulled into a parking lot when she saw a man who appeared relaxed, sitting on a low brick wall near a planter between a Chipotle restaurant and a Union Bank.

She almost didn’t notice him until several teenagers walked out of the Chipotle and screamed. Then she took a closer look and realized the man was responsible for the popping noise she was hearing. Burstein said she saw him raising a handgun in the air, and he fired off six shots in a row.

The man didn’t seem interested in shooting at people, Burstein said, and because he was so relaxed, she wasn’t really worried.

“He wasn’t making a fuss, wasn’t shouting, didn’t seem angry ... didn’t seem to have a game plan, wasn’t running away,” Burstein said. “He just sat there, waiting to be shot.”