The Compton ambush on two deputies may have been a revenge attack against officers for recent police shootings against black men in LA, according to one report.
Two Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department deputies - one the 31-year-old mother of a six-year-old boy, the other a 24-year-old man - were ambushed by an unknown man at 7pm on Saturday night while they sat in their patrol car at the Metro Blue Line station at Willowbrook Avenue and Oak Street.
Fox News reporter William la Jeunesse said Monday: 'Los Angeles police will not say this publicly - but some believe this ambush was retaliation for some recent police shootings of black suspects in LA.'
On August 31 black man Dijon Kizzee was shot and killed by Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies after he was stopped for a traffic violation while riding a bike. At the beginning of this month the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors also voted to ask the coroner to conduct an inquest into the fatal deputy shooting of 18-year-old Andres Guardado on June 18.
Officials have asked for the public's help in identifying the gunman with a $175,000 reward for information leading to an arrest. Investigators are still working to determine the motive for the shooting, which they said occurred 'without warning or provocation'.
In a photo obtained by FOX11 the female deputy, who has not been named, is seen calling for her help as she tended to her partner, a 24-year-old male, who was kneeling behind a pillar after he was also struck in the head.
Harrowing dispatch call reveals a shaky voice called in the shooting, muttering: '998 Compton Pax.' Recognizing the code for a deputy-involved shooting, a dispatcher asks: 'Just happened?' The voice replies, almost unintelligibly, 'Compton Pax, deputies down. Compton Pax 998.'
Video released by the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department shows the moment the male suspect opened fire on two deputies at a Compton bus station before fleeing on foot
FOX11 obtained a photo (above) of the female deputy, who has not been named but was described as a 31-year-old mother of a six-year-old boy, covered in blood after she was shot in the jaw helping her colleague
The suspect is described as a black male between 28 and 30 years old. He was wearing dark clothing at the time of the shooting and was last seen in a black four-door sedan.
Earlier video released by cops showed the suspect approaching an LACSD vehicle parked outside the Metro Blue Line station and opening fire before he fled on foot.
Moments after the gunman runs away, the passenger door of the patrol car opens and a deputy stumbles out, pressing a hand to their head.
The driver's-side door opens soon after.
Authorities said that the deputies, who both graduated from the police academy 14 months ago, each sustained multiple gunshot wounds.
'That was a cowardly act,' Sheriff Villanueva said at a press conference. 'The two deputies were doing their job, minding their own business, watching out for the safety of the people on the train.
'Seeing somebody just walk up and start shooting on them. It p***es me off. It dismays me at the same time. There's no pretty way to say it.'
Protesters blocked the entrance to the hospital where the two Los Angeles sheriff's deputies ambushed in a shooting Saturday are fighting for their lives, chanting: 'We hope they f***ing die'
A radio reporter who was near the protest scene was taken into custody, KABC-TV reported. The sheriff's department later tweeted that the reporter interfered with the arrest of a male protester
In response to the shootings, Lynwood city manager Jose Ometeotl, posted an image with the words 'chickens come home to roost' accompanied by a photo of Malcolm X.
In 1963, Malcolm X used the phrase to describe John F Kennedy's assassination in response to what he said was the president's lack of action against violence.
Ometeotl then used the phrase to describe the Compton cops, saying that the neighborhood had been 'plagued by deputy gangs that inflict fear and violence in the community'.
'These deputies murdered, framed and stole from the community just because they could,' he said.
'Good deputies never turned on bad deputies for fear of retaliation and when caught most of these bad deputies kept their jobs and continued on their criminal career.'
After he posted the comment on Instagram, Ometeotl appeared to apologize, saying: 'The shooting of anyone is a wholly unacceptable occurrence in society. I do not condone the type of violence seen in the shooting of the deputies yesterday in Compton.'
Ometeotl shared a meme of Malcolm X in his post, reading 'chickens come home to roost'
Chairman of the Republican National Hispanic Assembly of California Anthony Cabassa leads a vigil prayer following the ambush shooting
Najee Ali, of Project Islamic Hope, presents Sgt. Larry Villareal, of the Los Angeles County Sheriff Dept., flowers for deputies recovering at St. Francis Medical Center on Monday
Police officers enter St. Francis Medical Center carrying flowers on Monday
On Monday Villanueva appealed to LA Lakers basketball star LeBron James - an outspoken activist and supporter of Black Lives Matter - to match the reward money.
The LA board of supervisors offered $100,000, and an additional $75,000 was donated by two private individuals.
'This challenge is to Lebron James. I want you to match that and double that reward,' Villanueva said, speaking on KABC Radio, on the John Phillips Show.
LAPD Chief Michael Moore had tweeted: 'Tonight we pray for these two guardians to survive. I recognize and acknowledge we live in troubled times. But we must as a community work thru our differences while loudly and resoundly condemn violence. Blessed are the Peacemakers.'
On Sunday evening a video emerged showing a bystander mocking the attack on the officers as a large convoy of patrol cars raced to the scene.
'Compton. N***** just aired the police out,' the unidentified narrator says with a smile. 'That's crazy. Damn. It goes down in Compton.'
'It's going up. Somebody bust on their a**. Somebody bust on the police. Two sheriffs shot in the face. Two sheriffs shot in the face - they tripping.
'Somebody just ran up on the corner and bust on their a**, right through the window'. He then concludes, grinning: 'It's a wrap.'
And footage said to have been taken outside St. Francis Medical Center in Lynwood on Saturday night shows as one protester yells: 'I want to deliver a message to the family of the pigs, I hope they f***ing die.' The protesters had been connected to the Black Lives Matter movement on Twitter but that has not been officially confirmed.
Another demonstrator tells police: 'Y'all gonna die one by one. This ain't gonna stop.'
One of the two Los Angeles deputies who were shot in the head in an ambush on Saturday night helped save her partner's life by applying a tourniquet after she radioed for back-up
Los Angeles Sheriff Alex Villanueva taking questions at a late-night news conference about the condition of two Sheriff's deputies in Compton Saturday
A large number of Sheriff's deputies converged on the area surrounding St. Francis Medical Center Saturday where two L.A. County sheriff's deputies are being treated for after being shot and gravely injured in attack
On Sunday the LA county sheriffs office tweeted: 'To the protesters blocking the entrance & exit of the HOSPITAL EMERGENCY ROOM yelling 'We hope they die' referring to 2 LA Sheriff's ambushed today in #Compton: DO NOT BLOCK EMERGENCY ENTRIES & EXITS TO THE HOSPITAL.
'People's lives are at stake when ambulances can't get through.'
Donald Trump on Sunday said the man who opened fire should face a 'fast trial death penalty' if the deputies die.
Speaking at a rally in Nevada on Sunday night, he said: 'If you murder a police officer, you should receive the death penalty.'
Joe Biden said: 'This cold-blooded shooting is unconscionable and the perpetrator must be brought to justice. Violence of any kind is wrong; those who commit it should be caught and punished. Jill and I are keeping the deputies and their loved ones in our hearts and praying for a full recovery.'
But the president of a Massachusetts chapter of the NAACP sparked outrage by declaring that there is 'no such thing as blue lives'.
Bishop Talbert Swan, a Pentecostal preacher from Springfield, Massachusetts, tweeted: 'There's no such thing as BLUE LIVES...' he tweeted. 'Stop comparing your JOB with my LIFE... Your CAREER is a choice, my BLACKNESS isn't. #BlackLivesMatter #BlueLivesMatter'.
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