LOS ANGELES – Los Angeles police on Thursday identified the suspect who allegedly shot and wounded three officers as a 32-year-old wanted parolee who was found dead hours after the standoff.
The officers, all senior officers and members of a Los Angeles Police Department K-9 dog-handling unit, were expected to survive their injuries after Wednesday's shooting in the Lincoln Heights neighborhood near downtown. Two were expected to be released from the hospital Thursday while the third, who was in stable condition, will remain for more treatment.
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The gunman was identified as Jonathan Magana. He was on parole at the time of the shooting following a prison sentence for two counts of second-degree robbery, according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
The coroner's office will determine whether he died by suicide or was shot by police during the confrontation.
The board of directors for the Los Angeles Police Protective League, the union that represents the LAPD's rank-and-file, in a statement Thursday said the three officers are “on the path to a full physical recovery.”
“Although we believe they will recover physically, each of these officers will live with the memory of almost losing their lives at the hands of a wanted fugitive in a hail of gunfire," the board wrote. "What occurred last night to these Metropolitan Division K-9 officers happens all too often to law enforcement officers and is a stark reminder of the inherent danger every officer faces when they put on their uniform each day.”
Magana was released to parole supervision in April 2022 after completing about two years of a five-year sentence for the Los Angeles County robbery conviction, according to the California prisons department. He was released early because he received credits under good conduct and program participation guidelines.
He had previously been convicted of possession of ammunition by a former felon and possession of a firearm by a felon in separate cases, the corrections agency said.
It was not immediately clear why the LAPD officers were looking for Magana on Wednesday. Additional details were not released.
“The LAPD sincerely appreciates the enormous outpouring of care and concern from the community, elected leaders, and our public safety partners,” the department said Thursday on Twitter. “We will provide further information at the appropriate time, as this is still an ongoing investigation.”
On Wednesday, LAPD officers were looking for a parolee at large, later identified as Magana, around 4 p.m. But when they found him, he was barricaded in a shed and refused to obey commands to surrender, the department said. Attempts to de-escalate the situation were unsuccessful, police said.
K-9 officers were called in to help, and the officers used what police described as a gas “chemical agent” in another effort to force Magana to surrender.
“Unfortunately, that suspect responded to that chemical agent by opening the shed and opening fire on the officers,” hitting three of them, Los Angeles Police Cmdr. Stacy Spell said during a news conference Wednesday.
SWAT robots were sent in to keep an eye on the suspect, and one fired gas into the shed.
The situation ended shortly before 9 p.m. Police later said the suspect was found and pronounced dead at the scene.