14-year-old in dressing room killed by LAPD who were shooting at assault suspect

[Jilly_in_VA]

Los Angeles police fatally shot a 14-year-old girl who was in a clothing store dressing room Thursday when officers fired on an assault suspect and a bullet went through the wall and struck the girl, authorities said.

Police also fatally shot the suspect Thursday morning at a Burlington store in the North Hollywood area of the San Fernando Valley, police said.

Witnesses told KCBS-TV that a man began acting erratically, threatening to throw items from the upper floor, and attacked a woman with a bicycle lock shortly before noon as the store was crowded with holiday shoppers.

Officers answered a report of an assault and others of shots being fired, police said. Investigators have not found a gun at the scene.

https://www.wbir.com/article/news/nation-world/police-kill-teen-girl-in-clothing-store-shooting-at-suspect/507-cf62c8e1-71d4-4e5f-bc57-48e38c8c0f3e
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Suspect apparently didn't have a gun, yet police happily fired away in a crowded store......

[Kid Berwyn]

1. Criminal.

No need for cops to execute psychotic people, innocent children, or most anyone not in the act of murder.

[Jilly_in_VA]

2. +1000

[jimfields33]

3. He was assaulting a woman.

You don’t need a gun to do that.

[JanMichael]

4. You don't need to start shooting to stop it either.

Especially in a crowed place.

[malaise]

5. She was trying on dresses for a birthday party - with her mother

The suspect was unarmed.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

6. FTP.

[pinkstarburst]

7. This is absolutely tragic

I am going to withhold judgment until we have more information. Obviously you never want officers to go in shooting when they don't have to. One piece that I note here.

Officers answered a report of an assault and others of shots being fired, police said.

If they believed he was an active shooter because that's the information they were given by dispatch, that could have caused them to try to take him out quickly before he could hurt anyone else.

We had an incident at a shopping mall here in Texas a few days ago where there was one of those organized crime smash and grabs and the criminals attacked a diamond jewelry store. Well, the sound of the whatever the thugs used to smash the glass/cases apparently caused a huge number of people in the mall doing their Christmas shopping to believe there was a mass shooting occurring and it led to mass panic.

So I could see how, tragic as this is, in a crowded situation where crazy dude isn't exactly broadcasting his intentions, it might be easy to misunderstand what's actually happening.

In any case, it's absolutely awful that this little girl was killed.