Man fatally shot by deputies after pursuit in Pico Rivera

Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies shot and killed a man in Pico Rivera on Thursday morning, officials said.

The shooting occurred in the 7100 block of Pico Vista Road just before 2 a.m. and the man was pronounced dead at the scene, officials said.

According to KTLA, the shooting came at the end of a pursuit that initially started as a traffic stop.

Authorities said deputies had tried to pull a vehicle over to check on a suspected DUI but the driver continued on, the TV station reported. The vehicle eventually crashed and the driver got out of the car carrying a gun, it said.

After a short foot chase, the man was shot and killed by deputies, KTLA reported.

Neighbors told the TV station that the man who was shot had lived in the neighborhood for years.

“Since he was at least 6 or 7 years old, I believe,” said Frank Lopez, 57, who recognized the man as his neighbor two doors down. “He’d run around the neighborhood, a couple times he played with my youngest son. In the most recent past, as we walk our dogs we’ll see him and say ‘Hi,’ that sort of thing. He was always nice to me.”

A woman at the scene who identified herself to KTLA as the man’s mother said he had been upset since his friend was killed in the neighborhood weeks earlier. Lopez said it was a drive-by shooting.

“Two weeks ago they killed his best friend in front of the house and now the cops do this to my son,” Maria Reza tearfully told the TV station. “After they shot him, they dragged him out. They turned him over and they handcuffed him and they let him bleed to death.”

A gun was found at the scene but it did not appear that the man had fired at deputies before he was shot, said Lt. Joe Mendoza.

An investigation into the shooting is ongoing and the identity of the man who was killed has not been released.

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Times photographer Irfan Khan contributed to this report.

UPDATES:

10:40 a.m.: This article was updated with comments from neighbors.

This article was originally published at 6:15 a.m.