Investigators early Wednesday scoured the parking lot of the Siesta Inn motel in El Monte, searching for evidence more than 12 hours after shootings left a suspect and two police officers dead.
Televised aerial footage showed officers in the lot, moving among evidence markers outside the motel at 10327 Garvey Ave. near Central Avenue. No additional details about the ongoing probe into the Tuesday evening shootings were immediately available
The early morning law enforcement activity followed an overnight procession, which included several law enforcement vehicles, that took the two fallen officers from LAC + USC Medical Center to the coroner’s office.
Family members of the two officers walked behind a coroner’s van as it left the hospital, according to footage from OnSceneTV. More than 100 officers joined them.
Several other police and fire vehicles lined streets, with officers and firefighters lined in front of the vehicles to show their support for the fallen officers and their families.
On Wednesday morning, a memorial to the officers began to grow at El Monte police headquarters, where community members left flowers and candles in remembrance of the two fallen officers.
One of them, Karina Serna, said she worked with the rookie officer, but did not give his name.
“He was an awesome guy,” she said. “It broke my heart to hear all this, I was at work when it happened and it’s said. I feel for the families, his kids, his family, it sucks.”
Ann Almonte, a pastor at Power to Choose Ministries, was among those who stopped by with flowers. The church started nearby in El Monte, but has since moved to La Puente, she said.
“The police department is going through so many things these days, but we’re just letting them know that the Lord is alive and well,” Almonte said. “We want to represent that love for them and we’re here for them even though they’re going through what they’re going through. We are here for them and we love them.”
El Monte officers were called to the hotel, at 10327 Garvey Ave. near Central Avenue, just after 4:45 p.m. Tuesday after a report of a possible stabbing and confronted the suspect in a motel, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department Capt. Andrew Meyer told reporters outside the hospital Tuesday night.
The suspect and officers exchanged gunfire, Meyer said. The suspect then ran into the parking lot where he was shot and killed by at least one additional police officer.
A woman was found inside a motel room and was thought to be the suspect’s girlfriend, Meyer said. She was being interviewed as of Tuesday night.
Neither the officers, nor the suspect, had been publicly identified as of 8 a.m. Wednesday morning. El Monte Interim Police Chief Ben Lowry said one officer was at least a 22-year veteran and the other was in his first year on the force.
Just before 9 a.m., ABC7 in Los Angeles reported a coroner’s van appeared to be taking the suspect’s body to the coroner’s office.
Suspect’s body transported from shooting scene in El Monte. | UPDATE on @ABC7 11am. pic.twitter.com/JHgm8e7ReH
— Marc Cota-Robles (@abc7marccr) June 15, 2022
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This is a breaking story. Please check back for updates.
Source: Orange County Register
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