Confrontation with shoplifting suspect leads to shooting at downtown LA Target

Noah Goldberg, Los Angeles Times on Dec 31, 2024

By clicking submit, I authorize Arcamax and its affiliates to: (1) use, sell, and share my information for marketing purposes, including cross-context behavioral advertising, as described in our Privacy Policy , (2) add to information that I provide with other information like interests inferred from web page views, or data lawfully obtained from data brokers, such as past purchase or location data, or publicly available data, (3) contact me or enable others to contact me by email or other means with offers for different types of goods and services, and (4) retain my information while I am engaging with marketing messages that I receive and for a reasonable amount of time thereafter. I understand I can opt out at any time through an email that I receive, or by clicking here

LOS ANGELES — A gunman who shot two workers at a Target store in downtown Los Angeles after he was confronted outside the store for allegedly shoplifting remained on the loose Tuesday.

The incident began around 8:55 p.m. Monday in the 700 block of Figueroa at the Figat7th shopping mall when the long-haired man wearing a durag and a purple scarf was confronted outside the store after he had stuffed more than $1,000 of merchandise into a briefcase he was carrying, said LAPD Capt. Raul Jovel during a news conference Tuesday.

When the shoplifter was confronted by security, he opened fire "indiscriminately," Jovel said. The armed guard returned fire and at least 10 shots total were fired during the mayhem, according to police.

Two Target workers were wounded in the gunfight. One — a loss prevention officer — remained in critical condition on Tuesday, police said. The second employee, an armed security guard, was treated and released from the hospital Tuesday morning.

The shooting occurred while shoppers were still in the area and chaos ensued, witnesses said. Some of the walls were pocked with bullet holes, according to police.

"(It was) extremely loud, extremely traumatic," said Judith Conway in an interview with KABC. "We all just started running towards the back. We were guided by one of the sales reps, one of the cashiers I should say, at the front. But extremely traumatic, we heard several rounds go off, and we just pretty much ran towards the back and just left our items in the cart, and just tried to do the best that we could to get to safety."

Another shopper didn't realize they were gunshots at first.

"Everybody was kind of, you think it's a firework; you don't assume the worst immediately. Then, there's like six more shots pretty quickly," witness Lucas Williams told KNBC. "Nobody really looked back because you could kind of hear bullets whisking by us. We just started running up the stairs. The main thing I remember is there was a little girl next to me and just seeing her family picking her up and running off."

The mall told broadcast stations in a statement it was troubled by the incident and was working with police in their investigation.

The suspect was last seen fleeing toward Eighth Street, according to police radio calls.

The downtown Los Angeles Target was the scene of a brutal stabbing in 2022, when a homeless man attacked a 9-year-old boy and a 25-year-old woman.

The attacker was fatally shot by a third-party security guard at the store. Target increased security at the location after the attack, according to ABC.