Long Beach officer killed boy, 17, during standoff, police say
Long Beach police said Monday that a person killed during a standoff with officers last month was a 17-year-old boy.
On the night of April 26, police were called to a home in the 6800 block of Cerritos Avenue, where a male with a gun was reported to have broken in and demanded items from a minor and two adults inside, the Long Beach Police Department said in a statement.
The suspect, found in the yard of the residence, was believed to be armed, police said.
"Officers engaged in verbal de-escalation for over an hour as they tried to negotiate the suspect’s surrender," the statement reads.
A SWAT team had been called in and was "on scene and preparing to deploy" when an officer shot the boy, according to police.
The teen was struck once in the upper body. He died at a local hospital.
Officers recovered a replica firearm from the scene, the police statement said.
The teenager was from San Bernardino. His name was not released.
Officers wore body cameras, and the Police Department will make video available to the public after it is reviewed, the department said.
On Monday, the Police Department said detectives had learned there was "an accomplice" in the home invasion who fled before officers arrived.
Iskay Mota, 18, of Modesto, was arrested Wednesday and transported to the Long Beach city jail, where he was booked on suspicion of robbery and held on $100,000 bail, according to police and Los Angeles County inmate records.
The shooting is being investigated by the California Department of Justice, which independently probes all fatal police shootings of unarmed civilians.
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
