Two men in a stolen pickup truck were wounded when Los Angeles County Sheriff’s deputies opened fire on them at the end of a pursuit in West Long Beach this morning.
Seven different deputies fired at the suspects after the driver of the truck crashed and the passenger got out and started shooting a few minutes after 10:30 a.m., authorities said.
The barrage of gunfire left shattered glass on a passenger-side window of a sheriff’s SUV and bullet holes in another patrol vehicle, as well as the pickup truck.
The truck’s driver and a passenger were both taken to local hospitals, according to a sheriff’s department advisory. Details on the extent of their injuries weren’t immediately available, and Lt. Scott Hoglund said investigators do not yet know how many times the suspects were hit.
“It happened very quickly,” Hoglund told reporters.
No deputies were hurt, according to the sheriff’s department.
It’s so far unclear how many times the suspect shot at the deputies and vice-versa because investigators are still sorting through the shell casings, Hoglund said.
The chase with the truck, a Chevy Silverado, begun only a few minutes earlier when deputies spotted it near Wilmington Avenue and the 405 Freeway in Carson at about 10:25 a.m., Hoglund said.
The truck had been reported stolen out of Orange County, and the report mentioned weapons in the car, according to the sheriff’s department.
Deputies tried to pull the truck over, but the driver took off eastbound, eventually leading them to Carson Avenue, authorities said.
“The suspects avoided a spike strip that was deployed, ultimately driving over a center median, a grass embankment, lost control and collided into a small block wall,” Hoglund said.
At that point, the passenger got out of the truck and started firing at deputies, Hoglund said.
The scene of the crash was at Carson Street and Via Oro Avenue, just east of Long Beach’s border with Carson.
After the crash, authorities swarmed the area, which is in a stretch of business parks.
“We were just getting ready to open up when I saw a bunch of cop cars book it down Carson,” said Sandra Quinteros, an employee at nearby Dominguez Pizza. “Like, first eight cars, then four more, and it kept going and going.”
Some larger nearby businesses were put on lockdown during the incident, witnesses said.
Hoglund asked any witnesses of the shooting to contact sheriff’s officials with what they saw.
The Long Beach Police Department said none of its officers were involved in the pursuit or the shooting.
City News Service contributed to this report.