Police Officers Shot In Inglewood, California, In Scientology Church, Sword-Wielding Man Suspected

UPDATE: 12:10 a.m. EDT - Inglewood’s Church of Scientology thanked the first responders who helped eliminate the threat from a sword-wielding suspect, Wednesday, in a confrontation that left two officers wounded. Both the officers were expected to make a full recovery.

Original story:

A sword-wielding man was shot dead by police at the Church of Scientology, Inglewood in Los Angeles, Wednesday. In the confrontation, two of the officers were shot.

According to Inglewood Police Lt. Neal Cochran, the suspect arrived in a white Bentley and entered the church at around 3:30 p.m. local time (6:30 p.m. EDT), wearing a hoodie and armed with a samurai sword. Officers responded to the scene and shot the man in the head. He was rushed to the hospital and later declared dead, ABC 7 reported.

The shooting took place in the lobby area of the church. One of the officers at the scene sustained a gunshot wound in the head and another was wounded in the arm. Both of them were admitted to the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center in Westwood for treatment of non-life-threatening injuries, the Los Angeles County Fire Department confirmed.

It was not immediately clear if the suspect possessed a firearm in addition to a sword or the two officers were shot by friendly fire. Inglewood Police Chief Mark Fronterotta said in a press conference that the officer who was injured in the right arm might have been either shot, cut by the sword or wounded by some other means. The other one was shot in the thumb, local news outlet KUSI reported.

The name of the suspect – reportedly an Asian male – was not released by the police as they investigate the case. Witnesses present at the scene were being interviewed by authorities and the security camera footages were being analyzed.

The screenshot of a text sent by one of the eyewitnesses to the shooting was obtained by FOX Los Angeles investigative reporter Bill Melugin. “A weird guy came in with a sword acting crazy. The police was called and he was shot basically. But I’m fine and only the bad guy was shot,” the witness wrote in the text.