1 dead, 1 hurt in Commerce shooting involving sheriff’s deputies

A Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy opened fire during a confrontation in Commerce early Friday that left one suspect dead and another injured, authorities said.

The shooting occurred after deputies responded to a call from the Speedway Express gas station at Whittier Boulevard and Gerhart Avenue where there was allegedly someone trying to light a fire near a gas pump shortly before 4 a.m., said Grace Medrano, a sheriff’s spokeswoman.

Sheriff’s detectives are still piecing together the sequence of events that followed, she said.

But a preliminary investigation found at least one of the deputies fired their weapon at two suspects described as a man and woman, Medrano said. One of the suspects died at the scene, but sheriff’s investigators would not say if that person was fatally shot by deputies. A second suspect was wounded and taken to a local hospital.

During the confrontation, one deputy suffered facial injuries and was also hospitalized, Medrano said. Investigators did not say whether any weapons were recovered at the scene.

The shooting was the19th so far in 2021 in Los Angeles County in which someone was hit by a deputy’s gunfire.