Man Killed After Throwing Beer Bottle at Police Cruiser

A suspect who was killed by Los Angeles police in Van Nuys threw a beer bottle through the rear window of a patrol car, leading the officers to believe they were being shot at, police Chief Charlie Beck said today.

The shooting took place at 11:30 p.m. Saturday at Victory and Sepulveda boulevards.

Beck said two officers were inside a patrol car stopped at a red light.

“They were approached from the rear by an individual who threw a, what we believe to be a 40-ounce beer bottle through the rear view window of the police vehicle with such force that the officers believed they were being fired upon,” Beck said. “They alighted from the vehicle and an officer-involved shooting occurred.”

The dead man’s identity has not been released. According to the coroner’s office, the man was a Van Nuys resident in his 40s.

Beck said the shooting remains under investigation, and the officers have been taken out of the field.

“Of course we’ll look into this,” Beck said. “... The priorities we’ll look at here is, ‘Were the officers’ perceptions reasonable? Not were they correct, but were they reasonable? And so that is the hurdle that will occur with this shooting.”

The officers were not injured.

-City News Service