Metal Pipe-Wielding Woman Fatally Shot by Police in Los Angeles

TARZANA, Calif.—A woman wielding a metal dumbbell bar allegedly assaulted four people, leaving them with serious head and face injuries, before she was fatally shot by police on July 9 in Tarzana.

At around 8:30 a.m., officers responded to several calls of an assault with a deadly weapon suspect in the area of Reseda Boulevard and Hatteras Street, the Los Angeles Police Department reported.

The suspect, described as a woman in her 30s, allegedly attacked four victims along Reseda Boulevard with a metal pipe. When officers arrived on the scene, they encountered the woman near the parking lot of a gas station at Reseda and Burbank boulevards.

“As the suspect held the pipe and advanced toward the officers, they deployed a taser and 40mm foam baton round, and an officer-involved shooting occurred,” police said in a statement.” The metal pipe was determined to be a metal dumbbell bar, approximately 14 inches long.”

Paramedics rushed the woman to a hospital, where she was pronounced dead.

Two of the injured victims remained hospitalized with stable vital signs, police said. No officers were injured.

Investigators learned the woman is a suspect in attacks on four other people on July 8, police said.

“A mother and child were in a parked vehicle when the suspect smashed the windows,” police said. “Two males were also struck with a similarly described weapon yesterday, one in the head causing a cut, and the other in the arm. Both declined medical treatment.”

The police shooting investigation continued and detectives will review body-worn video, any surveillance video and interview witnesses and involved officers, police said.