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A suspected DUI driver was fatally shot by officers in Torrance on Monday afternoon after she drove her car into a parked police cruiser, reports ABC 7. The suspect has been identified as 39-year-old Michelle Shirley.
Officers received a call about a reckless driver at about 2:30 p.m., according to KTLA. Witnesses say that she had been driving erratically around the intersection of Arlington and Post avenues. When officers arrived, they found her driving down the wrong side of the road. Sergeant Paul Kranke of the Torrance Police department said that she'd nearly struck several cars, and that her airbag had been deployed.
Officers then attempted to trap the car by using a PIT maneuver outside a Chevron station at the intersection of Cabrillo Avenue and Sepulveda Boulevard. The car was stopped momentarily, and several officers got out of their vehicles. Shirley, who was surrounded by at least five police cruisers, drove forward and rammed into a squad car. Police fired several shots at the car, which then veered off into the curb.
Drivers who were at the scene captured the shooting on video:
@ABC7 just in case y'all want a video of police shooting in Torrance pic.twitter.com/zqdB1iiiXD
— REG (@D_Reg_) October 31, 2016
.#Exclusive new look at deadly #ois caught on camera after suspected drunk driver plows into patrol cars. Only at @ABC7 at 11pm. pic.twitter.com/hUVHmz4g1R
— Leanne Suter (@abc7leanne) November 1, 2016
Officers performed CPR on Shirley. She was transferred to a hospital, where she died.
Authorities say that one officer sustained minor injuries.
The act of shooting at moving cars is something that police departments in the Southland have been reviewing. As noted at KPCC, the LAPD has cracked down on it and "virtually eliminated" shooting at moving cars with unarmed drivers from 2010 to 2014. The County Sheriff's department also adopted a policy earlier this year that essentially bans shooting at vehicles unless the driver is threatening officers with a gun.
Todd Rogers, an assistant L.A. sheriff, told NPR that shooting at an unarmed driver can make a situation worse. "Chances are you are not going to kill the vehicle. You are not going to stop the vehicle. It is still going to be moving forward and everything in its path is going to get hit," said Rogers.
LAist left a message for Kranke. We will update when we get more information.
