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March 25, 2008
Officers Kill Suspect in Hollywood, Curson St. Shut Down*
Looking down Curson Street this morning | Photos by Andy Sternberg
LAPD Officers checking the welfare of a man on the street shot and killed him after he allegedly lunged at them with a knife. While on patrol around 4 a.m., officers spotted a man lying on the ground in an alcove and stopped to check on his well-being.
"At some point, when they confronted the suspect, he drew a knife, stabbed one of the officers in the hand,'' according to LAPD Sgt. Lee Sands. "He may have been there sleeping. (We) don't know any more on him."
The incident occurred on the 1400 block of Curson Ave. between Sunset Blvd. and De Longpre Ave. Residents heard around six shots from the officers, killing the suspect on the spot, according to KTLA. The officer who was cut by a knife was taken to the hospital in stable condition.
Neither the suspect's (believed to be in his 20s) nor the officers' names have been released and as of 9:10 a.m., Curson St. was still shut down according to Officer Lopez at the LAPD.
* Post updated by news editor Andy Sternberg
Location of incident on Curson Ave. | View Larger Map
Also in Early Morning Shootings: At 1:30 a.m. this morning in Pasadena, three black males were shot at by suspects, described as three hispanic males in their 20s. One of the victims was shot in the foot and treated at a hospital.
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Dayum! Thats why the birdies were flying this morning. No sleep to be had at that hour.....
Ahhh, the ubiquitous sounds of Los Angeles: police airships.
a fool in the streets with a knife, hmmmm. cant say i'm not glad he's no longer with us. probably a longshot, but maybe he's was the idiot that stabbed this poor old man to death a ten days ago and a couple blocks away
Knifed WeHo Senior Dies; None Heeded His Pleas For An Hour
http://wehonews.com/z/wehonews/archive/page.php?articleID=2150
Interesting point kona.
Reward info for stabbing earlier this month: http://laist.com/2008/03/19/rewards_for_suc.php
Map with distance between today's incident and this month's earlier stabbing: http://www.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=Romaine+and+Martel,+hollywood,+ca+to+curson+and+de+longpre&sll=34.089381,-118.351121&sspn=0.00853,0.013604&ie=UTF8&ll=34.092438,-118.353074&spn=0.00853,0.013604&z=16
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I'm very skeptical on this one and want to hear more accounts from people in the area. The "residents heard around six shots" part from KTLA is disturbing, especially if it's verified.
Is it necessary to fire multiple times at close range in self-defense of a man allegedly wielding a knife?
"When they approached, he lunged, cutting one officer's hand, prompting the use of deadly force."
Was this straight out of an LAPD media guide on how to report deadly shootings?
You are homeless, sleeping in the dead of night at 4AM, scared that some idiots would harass, rob, beat you just for kicks. And then two of them show up. And kill you. Good times.
Kona, or maybe he was protecting himself from those who did the stabbing earlies??
That particular block is not shady for the most part which makes me wonder what he was doing laying there with a knife. The street is very residential.
i have lived really close to where this happened for a long time (15yrs) but did not hear the shots. while that section of street isn't bad, it's certainly not great, especially at that hour. the 711 and liquor store are kind of a magnet.
there seems to be a new breed of emboldened meth freak transients that have made their presence felt throughout my neighborhood, attempting to break into houses and stealing things from garages and backyards. i'm not saying this guy was one of those but it fits with waking up swinging a knife or lunging it or whatever. i agree he could have been thinking he was protecting himself.
i must say, he was sleeping on a sidewalk. i have half a mind that somebody called for cops to do a welfare check on the guy with the thinking of how awful it was what happened to that old man a week and a half ago, that nobody checked to see if he was okay while he moaned and lay dying on the sidewalk. a big deal was made about this thought the neighborhood that people were to jaded to come to somebody's aid, it's on everybody's minds. probably not how it happened but what if it was, terrible irony that another death would come of such a thought.
It may be avant garde in this day and age, but i give cops the benefit of the doubt. I will wait and see what is said before i start casting blame recklessly.
First of all why would the police officers wake someone up if they are sleeping? He was not hurting someone or causing any disturbances to require the police officers to stop their car, get out and question Usman. And second of all, how on earth did the police officers not see Usman pull out a pocket knife? Usman would have had to put his hand in his pocket, take the pocket knife out, open it, and THEN attack the officer. Where were the officers when this was happening? Anyone makes a movement and the officers usually have their guns out already and telling the person to put their hand in the air. And in this case there were two police officers, so if for some reason one did not notice, then the other most likely did. And I think one police officer would have been enough to subdue Usman, let alone two. I guess the officers did not want to waste their energy and strength and thought it would be easier to just shoot him in the CHEST a few times until he died. This story just does not make sense. I think some more investigation on the reporter’s part should be made so we can further understand as to what happened.
Why has there not been an update after March 25. The update date for this article is March 25 9:10am.What is the name of this person? How old are they? Is what ever the police tell you good enough to report? Are there not always two sides to a story? So why has there not been more published about this article or updated?