A 22-year-old robbery suspect was shot and killed by a sheriff's deputy in Bellflower Friday afternoon.
A deputy from the Lakewood Sheriff's Station -- which serves the communities of Bellflower, Artesia, Lakewood, Hawaiian Gardens and Paramount -- saw the suspect punching the victim in the face before stealing property from the victim, said Deputy Kim Manatt of the Sheriff's Headquarters Bureau.
The suspect ran down an alley and the deputy followed in his patrol car, crashing into a cinder block wall at the end of the alley, Manatt said.
"(The deputy) confronted the suspect, who was standing on a raised platform to the left of the deputy's patrol car," Manatt said.
At some point, the suspect reached for his waistband and the deputy fired his weapon at the suspect from the driver's seat of his patrol car. Apparently no gun was found, according to deputies.
Relatives at the scene in the 9400 block of Alondra Boulevard identified the dead man as Tony Francis, 22, after the roughly 2:10 p.m. shooting Friday.
According to a broadcast report, Francis' fiancee and her sister were taken into custody. It was unclear if they were witnesses to the shooting.
"There's no reason for Tony Francis to be dead now -- period -- regardless of whether he committed a crime" a cousin, Donte Strong, told CBS2, which reported that Francis may have tried to grab a gold chain.
Relatives said Francis leaves behind a 2-year-old daughter.
No deputies were injured in the shooting, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.
- City News Service
