One man died on a Hollywood street after he was shot by an off-duty police officer working on a nearby film set.
Three other people were injured, one critically, during the mid-morning incident yesterday at the famed Hollywood intersection of Sunset Boulevard and Vine Street.
The shooter, a 26-year-old Hispanic dressed in a white sweat vest, was filmed from an office block standing in the middle of the road firing on pedestrians and motorists.
At first, witnesses didn’t know if the shooting was part of movie. Sean Penn and Ryan Gosling’s crime drama, Gangster Squad, is being filmed nearby.
But when bullets shattered glass and ricocheted in the street, they soon ran for cover.
Micah Williams told the local KCAL-9 news station he had been walking with a friend when the gunman began shooting “in every which direction”.
He added: “Then the third one ricocheted right by our head and I was like <<Dude, they’re shooting at us>>.”
A 40-year-old driver in a silver Mercedes was shot in the jaw. He is in critical condition at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.
Two other men suffered minor injuries, one was grazed by a bullet and the other as glass from a car window shattered near his face.
Gregory Bojorquez was on the way to his bank when the gunfire erupted. He said: “At first it seemed like a movie but then you could hear the shots hitting metal.”
Gregory Bojorquez saw a plainclothes detective emerge from a squad car and order the gunman to get on the ground and surrender, but the man appeared to ignore him.
“He was screaming he was going to die and that he wanted to die,” Gregory Bojorquez said.
An off-duty police motorcycle officer working as security on a film set also rushed to the scene to join the confrontation.
He shot the suspect after he ran out of bullets and produced a knife, according to witnesses. His name has not been released.
It is unknown if the actors were on set during the real-life shooting, but they would have heard the gunfire.
In the Los Angeles area, every movie production is required to have a permit, so if there is shooting, or a movie, locals are notified for any loud noises and big signs are placed on street corners.
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