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El Segundo Suspect Livestreamed Cop Shootout On Facebook

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com/AP) — A homicide suspect livestreamed on Facebook Thursday morning as he traded gunfire with police, eventually shooting a Los Angeles SWAT officer before a police round struck him, a law enforcement official said.

The official was not authorized to discuss an ongoing investigation and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

Both the suspect and officer are expected to survive, Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck said Thursday.

The official said the video, which captured at least part of the encounter, showed the suspect shouting as he pointed a handgun at officers with gunshots ringing around him. At one point he yells that the officers are "about to kill me."

Police are in possession of a copy of the video, which has been removed from Facebook.

Police have not released the name of the wounded officer or the suspect.

The suspect was one of four people wanted in connection with a gang-related killing on March 31, Beck said. The man led police officers from Los Angeles and Hawthorne on a brief chase in El Segundo, which ended with the shootout at El Segundo and South Aviation boulevards sometime before 9:45 a.m.

Bullet casings littered the intersection. A Hawthorne police cruiser was damaged during the chase as well.

The wounded SWAT officer, a 23-year LAPD veteran, was shot in the hip and is expected to make a full recovery, Beck said. He was conscious as he was being taken by ambulance to Harbor-UCLA Medical Center.

Beck visited the wounded officer at the hospital and said he was stable and his wife, a fellow LAPD officer, was at his bedside.

The suspect was taken to a hospital in serious condition and underwent surgery for multiple gunshot wounds. He will be arrested in connection with the March killing and for investigation of attempted murder of a police officer, the chief said.

The Los Angeles Police Protective League, the union that represents police officers, said the shooting is a "somber reminder that police work is inherently dangerous and deadly."

(© Copyright 2017 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)

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