In the days since an off-duty US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent shot and killed a man federal officials say was firing a weapon at a Northridge apartment complex, Los Angeles police officials have provided few details about the events leading up to the deadly New Year’s Eve rally.
LAPD Deputy Chief Alan Hamilton said the incident is being investigated by the Robbery-Homicide Division, which handles all extrajudicial police shootings. On the government side, he said, the case is being handled by the FBI, the US Department of Justice and Homeland Security Investigations.
A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security said after the incident that an ICE agent was responding to “an ongoing shooting situation” at his apartment, but the absence of injuries to anyone else at the scene and statements from neighbors fueled speculation that the man may have been ringing in the new year by firing a gun into the air.
Hamilton said it’s “too early to say” if that’s the case.
He said police detectives have not yet interviewed the agent involved to determine the nature of the incident due to guidelines on how to conduct deadly force investigations with federal law enforcement officials.
“We’re not going to talk to them for days,” Hamilton said of the ICE agent.
Authorities have not identified the man killed or the agent responsible.
After the incident, Homeland Security officials released a brief statement saying the agent opened fire “to protect his life and the lives of others.”
“He was forced to defend himself and use his weapon and shoot the shooter,” said Tricia McLaughlin, the department’s assistant secretary for public affairs, adding that ICE contacted police afterward.
The Village Pointe complex where the shooting occurred has a large complex of two-story “apartment houses” enclosed behind security gates. The complex, in the area of Roscoe Boulevard and Amestoy Avenue, revolves around a central area with a pool, jacuzzi and outdoor grills. Several people in the area on Friday said they were aware of the shooting but could not provide more details than what they had heard on the news. Another neighbor, who declined to be named, recalled hearing gunshots in the backyard and seeing at least ten LAPD vehicles.
Video taken from the scene by KTLA News the night of the incident shows a white tarp placed on the side of the road at the apartments to protect the body from view. The victim was pronounced dead at the scene.
Firefighters received a call for help at an apartment complex around 11:07 p.m. on New Year’s Eve looking for a shooting victim believed to be in her 30s, according to LA Fire spokeswoman Margaret Stewart.
A recent report after the incident by City News Service quoted an unnamed LAPD official as saying the man who was killed was firing a gun into the air.
For decades, law enforcement officials have urged the public not to fire guns into the air on Independence Day and New Year’s Eve, an annual event in some areas that occasionally results in injuries or deaths. Firing guns in the air, even in celebration, is a crime punishable by prison.
By Friday morning, a makeshift memorial of candles and roses had sprung up outside a ground-floor apartment that neighbors said was related to the slain man. No one answered the door when the Times reporter knocked.
Several neighbors expressed shock at what happened, including one who said bullets were fired at his apartment.
Another resident, Quinn Anderson, 52, said he heard what he thought were fireworks just before midnight; recently he was told that they had been shot.
“It’s New Year’s Eve and the ball has already dropped in New York so I just thought people were celebrating,” he said, adding that he did not know the victim or the agent.
A person in the leasing office of the complex said he would pass on the Times reporter’s information to the company that owns the building. They had not issued a statement as of Friday evening.
