DOWNEY, Calif. — A man suspected of gunning down a liquor store owner near Los Angeles leaned out a car window during a chase and blasted away with a handgun before being dragged wounded from the car Friday.
There was no word on his condition as he was taken away in an ambulance.
He is believed to be the gunman who walked into a Downey liquor store on Tuesday night and shot down Gurpreet Singh, 44, of Cerritos, Sgt. Mark Haxton said.
Police have said nothing was taken from the store and there was no immediate word on a motive for the attack.
On Friday afternoon, police and Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies began chasing a black Toyota Prius in Downey, southeast of Los Angeles.
The high-speed chase stretched along a freeway and surface streets, during which video showed a passenger in a black T-shirt lean halfway out of the front passenger’s window and fire two-handed at pursuing patrol cars.
Video showed the man using a distinctive long-barreled revolver strikingly similar to one that was used in the store killing.
The chase ended at about 3 p.m. in neighboring Vernon when traffic trapped the car and the passenger again fired. A car behind the Prius managed to back away, and police who pulled up in the next lane riddled the Prius with gunfire, shattering windows.
A short time later, a bloodied woman driver got out and surrendered. There was no immediate word on her condition.
The street near a railroad track was emptied, and sheriff’s SWAT teams were called in. Two armored vehicles blocked in the Prius.
During a standoff that lasted more than an hour, authorities rolled a robot up to the open driver’s door to peer inside the car and later fired two flash-bang grenades into the vehicle.
When the man inside didn’t get out, a police dog was sent in to pull at him. Only then did SWAT members drag the motionless man from the car.
He was strapped to a gurney and taken away by ambulance. There was no word on his condition.
