UPDATE 6 a.m. Wednesday
A search was under way Wednesday for a man who was fired at by Los Angeles police after he allegedly tried to run down at least one officer with a van in the parking lot of a Trader Joe's in Sherman Oaks.
Two patrolling officers from the Van Nuys Station were in the parking lot at Hazeltine Avenue and Riverside Drive at 6:35 p.m. Tuesday when they saw the suspect being chased by two store employees, said Detective Gus Villanueva of the Los Angeles Police Department's Media Relations Section.
"The officers formed the opinion that a robbery just occurred. They tried to intervene. The suspect entered a white van, at which point he sped off, almost striking one or both of the officers," Villanueva said.
"At that point an officer-involved shooting occurred and the suspect took off in the vehicle out of the parking lot onto Hazeltine and then southbound onto Hazeltine."
Neither officer was injured, said Villanueva, who did not know if one or both officers opened fire. Investigators do not know if the suspect was struck, he said.
"No one has shown up at a hospital that we know of," Villanueva said early today.
The property where the shooting is shared by a Trader Joe's grocery store and a bank and is across the street from Westfield Fashion Square. The shooting was under investigation by the LAPD's Force Investigation Division, Villanueva said.
Anyone with information about the suspect was asked to contact the Van Nuys Station at (818) 374-9500.
Around 6:50 p.m., multiple LAPD cars and an LAPD helicopter swarmed the area of Radford Avenue and Magnolia Boulevard in Valley Village. Officers pulled over and handcuffed at least two men who were driving a white van. An officer at the scene described the men as shooting suspects, but they were quickly questioned and released.
