Updated, 5:23 p.m.: Santa Monica police confirmed that the suspect wanted a shooting that injured an officer near the Santa Monica Place shopping center was arrested. The weapon that would have been used in the shot was also recovered.
Previously, 3:16 p.m.: An officer was injured at lunchtime today during a shooting in Santa Monica, which caused a suspect to Santa Monica Place Mall.
Santa Monica police have published an alert around 1:30 p.m., urging the public to avoid the fourth street and avenue Colorado, where the shopping center is located.
The officers carried out a coordinated search for the suspect, according to the department spokesperson, Lieutenant Lewis Gilmour. Police described the suspect as a man in their thirties, given the last time wearing a dark jacket and black pants. A photo of the suspect was published on the social media account of the department.
He was not immediately clear if the officer, who was taken to the hospital for treatment, was struck by gunshots.
The incident comes only two days after two children rolling in a wayo were killed next to the shopping center, at the corner of 2ND Street and Broadway around 11:38 p.m.
“Preliminary information indicates that the shooting was a targeted and isolated incident that followed a verbal altercation earlier in the evening between the victims and the suspect,” said Santa Monica police. “At the time of the shooting, the victims were passengers in an autonomous carpooling vehicle when the suspect approached on foot and pulled several bullets in the vehicle before fleeing the premises.”
City News Service contributed to this report.
