LOS ANGELES – Two Los Angeles police officers shot by a wanted parolee have been released from the hospital and a third is in stable condition, police said Friday.
The officers, all members of a K-9 dog-handling unit, were wounded Wednesday in the Lincoln Heights neighborhood near downtown. Two were released on Thursday, a police statement said.
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The gunman, Jonathan Magana, 32, was found dead more than two hours after the shooting. The coroner’s office will determine whether he died by suicide or was shot by police during the confrontation.
Around 4 p.m. Wednesday, plainclothes officers from a drug enforcement detail were looking for Magana, who was on parole after being released last year after serving time for robbery, according to police. He also was a suspect in an extortion incident, law enforcement said.
Officers spotted Magana walking, but then lost sight of him. They called in uniformed officers to help surround an area and asked K-9 officers to assist in searching it, the police statement said.
One dog alerted officers to the downstairs room of what appeared to be a converted multiunit living space that was under construction.
Officers surrounded the unit and called on Magana to surrender. When he didn't, they fired a chemical gas. Magana then opened fire, hitting three officers, who were pulled to a safe location as other officers shot back, according to police. The wounded officers were taken to a nearby hospital in ambulances.
With the area surrounded, SWAT teams were called in and robots were sent in to keep an eye on the suspect. One, equipped with a video camera, went into the room and found Magana, who wasn't moving.
He was later declared dead at the scene.
Police said they found two semi-automatic handguns — one of them an unregistered "ghost gun" — and a loaded high-capacity magazine.