LA Police Chase Suspect Shot Down On Live TV

KTLA-TV was following a high-speed police pursuit through Los Angeles tonight and ended up showing the driver getting shot live on the air. An LAPD spokeswoman confirmed to Deadline that there was an officer-involved shooting but offered no further details, including the suspect’s condition. The chase ended at 10:30 PM when the suspect’s Corvette plowed into another car at the intersection of Los Angeles Street and Olympic Boulevard downtown. KTLA’s helicopter camera was rolling when the male driver exited the wrecked car and headed for the sidewalk. “Game over,” one of the station’s announcers said, just before the suspect suddenly fell to the ground. “Down he goes,” said a second announcer. “He’s probably pretty injured from that crash. It was a very, very violent crash.” He abruptly stopped talking, then said, “I gotcha” — as he was informed that the man had been shot. At that point, the first announcer told the cameraman to pull out of the tight shot and said, “I’m not sure if those were non-lethal rounds or not, but clearly they hit him with a whole lot of something as he tried to run.”

The scene was reminiscent of another Southland pursuit in November 2012 in which the driver was fatally shot by police on live TV. Two months before that, Fox News Channel accidentally aired the suicide of a man who has left his vehicle after a police chase. The Arizona man’s family later sued the cable channel.