Suspect dies following shootout with police in North Hollywood

NORTH HOLLYWOOD, LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- Los Angeles police officers shot and killed a man who they say pointed a gun at them when they were sent to North Hollywood to investigate an assault with a deadly weapon -- and where they found a person dead in a vehicle.

The incident unfolded around 4:50 a.m. at Laurel Canyon and Victory boulevards.

According to Det. Meghan Aguilar, when officers arrived, the suspect pointed a handgun at them, and the officers fired at the man, who ran north on Bellingham Avenue, in a neighborhood east of the 170 Freeway. Officers set up a perimeter in the area, and staged around a large parking structure behind a Target store.

At some point, the suspect came out of the parking structure on the west side, and officers fired again, Aguilar said.

The suspect ran back into the structure and then tried to exit on the north side, still armed, and officers opened fire again, fatally wounding the man, who died at the scene, Aguilar said.

Authorities recovered a handgun at the scene. It was unclear if the suspect fired at the officers.

Information was not available on the identities of the people fatally shot or on their relationship to one another, if any.

"We aren't sure of the relationship or the motive for that," said Aguilar. "That is something that Valley Bureau detectives are working to establish right now as well as who that individual is."

The shooting remains under investigation.

City News Service, Inc. contributed to this report.