LAPD searching for four men involved in Westwood parking lot shooting
By Roberto Luna Jr.
Aug. 2, 2015 11:11 a.m.
This post was updated on Aug. 3 at 5:47 p.m.
Police are searching for four men in connection with a shooting in a Westwood Village parking lot Sunday morning that left a 26-year-old man in the hospital.
The shooting took place around 1:50 a.m. in a parking lot on Broxton Avenue next to Barney’s Beanery after the four men were approached by several men who had just left a restaurant bar, according to a Los Angeles Police Department alert.
A fight started between the men after the four men refused to leave the parking lot, said LAPD Lt. Allen Schubert.
The fight ended when a man was knocked to the ground and one of the four men fired at least two rounds towards him, striking the man at least once in the upper torso, according to the alert.
The four men then drove away in a silver Nissan, possibly an Altima, four-door car with tinted windows, according to the alert. The men were all described as black and all around 20 years old.
The wounded man was taken to Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center in stable condition.
David Houston, the owner of Barney’s Beanery, said the man who got shot had previously been inside the bar before the man was shot, but that the confrontation occurred in the parking lot next to the bar. The four men never went inside Barney’s Beanery, Houston said.
He added that some of the bar’s staff went to help the man after he was shot.
Silvia Espinosa, one of the toll booth operators, said the parking lot closes at midnight, so there wasn’t an operator on duty and the people involved shouldn’t have been there.
She added there are no surveillance cameras in the parking lot.
Westwood Village Improvement Association workers took away the yellow tape around noon that surrounded the crime scene and cleaned it with a water hose.
Last summer, a Department of Homeland Security officer fired shots at pro-Palestinian counter-protesters, but nobody was hit or injured.
Steve Sann, chair of the Westwood Community Council, said the last shooting fatality in Westwood Village was about 10 years ago in Habibi Cafe.
Police said it is unknown if any of the men are affiliated with UCLA.
No further information was immediately available. The case is still under investigation.
Anyone with information about this case can call LAPD at (310) 444-0702.
Compiled by Roberto Luna Jr., Bruin senior staff.
