Police In Bell Gardens Shoot, Wound Suspect
BELL GARDENS (CBS) — A suspect was shot in the face three times by Bell Gardens police Friday evening and taken to a hospital.
The officer-involved shooting occurred around 6:40 p.m. in the 6800 block of Marlow Avenue, said Deputy Peter Gomez of the Sheriff's Headquarters Bureau.
No officers were injured in the shooting.
Sheriff's homicide investigators were sent to the scene to determine the circumstances surrounding the shooting.
The alleged victim's mother, Maria Alvarez, told CBS2 and KCAL9 reporter Louisa Hodge that she and her son were in their car involved in a struggle when police shot her son three times in the face.
"Because we were struggling," said Alvarez, "someone called the cops.
The shooting followed her son's car and a Bell Gardens patrol car colliding. Alvarez said her husband intervened and tried to keep her son from leaving the scrne.
She told Hodge it wasn't "looking good" for her son. Alvarez identified her son as 20-year-old Johnny Estrada.
(©2012 CBS Local Media, a division of CBS Radio Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Wire services contributed to this report.)
