Armed Motorist Flees Police After Shooting on Freeway

A routine traffic stop escalated into gunfire on a freeway in the San Fernando Valley on Tuesday morning when a man pointed a pistol at police and then fled into a neighborhood, where he broke into two homes to use a phone and steal a change of clothes, police said.

There were no injuries to police or passing motorists in the incident that began about 11:30 on the Hollywood Freeway near Roscoe Boulevard, Los Angeles Police Sgt. John Pasquariello said. It was not known if the suspect was wounded in the gunfire.

The names of the officers involved in Tuesday’s shooting were not released.

The LAPD issued a citywide tactical alert and searched 100 homes in a six-square-block area of North Hollywood, utilizing K-9 units, SWAT teams and helicopters.

Officers were still searching the area Tuesday evening.

School Locked Down During Police Search

Nearby, school officials locked down Strathern Elementary School as police closed off traffic inside a perimeter bounded by Laurel Canyon Boulevard, Stagg Street, Cantera Avenue and Whitsett Street.

The incident began when two LAPD officers pulled over a 1999 red Chrysler Concord without license plates in the northbound lanes of the Hollywood Freeway. Detectives believed the car may have been stolen at gunpoint last week in Santa Clarita.

“They approached the suspect’s vehicle, and the suspect put the gun out of the window,” Pasquariello said. “Fearing for their lives, they fired multiple times at the suspect.”

The man sped down the freeway and exited at Roscoe Boulevard. Officers pursued him to Wilkinson Street, where the man abandoned the car and ran, Pasquariello said.

He forced his way into a home on Rhodes Avenue, where he made a phone call, police said. He then ran a short distance to another home, where he broke in and stole a change of clothes.

Possible Link to Valley Slaying Investigated

Police detectives are examining whether the suspect’s vehicle is linked to a gang-related slaying last week in the northeast Valley.

The North Hollywood incident marked at least the fourth officer-involved shooting in the Valley this year, officials said.

In the most recent case, a San Fernando police officer exchanged gunfire last week with a group of suspected auto thieves in Mission Hills, leaving one man dead and an officer seriously wounded.

Times staff writer Gariot Louima contributed to this report