Officer Involved Shooting

Los Angeles: On November 11, 2008, Police Officer I Oliver Malabuya, 7 months with the Department, and his partner responded to a radio call of a disturbance involving a man with a gun at the Rite Aid Pharmacy located in the 300 block of South Vermont Avenue.  The Los Angeles Police Department’s helicopter unit, Air Support Division were first on scene and directed the patrol officers to the suspect (later identified as Dontaze Storey) inside the parking lot.  The officers attempted to detain Storey who ran from the officers.

Police Officer II Daniel Bunch, 5-years and 3 months with the Department and his partner, Officer Malabuyo responded to the location.  The officers followed Storey in their vehicles to the area of 3rd Street and New Hampshire Avenue.  The officers exited their vehicles and chased Storey on foot.

At the northwest corner of 3rd Street and New Hampshire Avenue, Officers Bunch and Malabuyo saw Storey turn in their direction with an unknown object in his hand believed to be a handgun.  The officers fired at Storey and wounded him.   

Suspect Storey was transported to a local hospital where he later died.  

Force Investigation Division will handle the shooting investigation.

Comments

[nhd]

Glad the officers are ok. Out of curiosity, was it a handgun the perp was carrying?

[anonymous]

a little cellular phone no gun

[Inbred]

Only a cellphone?! The gunsligger mentality passes from generation to generation I guess.

[citizen]

Another Lawsuit. Thanks Cowboy.

[Curtis Lemanski]

Citizen and inbred,

These officers were responding to a radio call of a man with a gun. They were directed to Storey by officers in the air unit. When they attempted to detain him, he ran and turned toward the officers holding a cell phone (according to anonymous). I'm not sure what time it was, but I believe this incident occurred at night.

I can't speak for the officers', but if they fired at Storey then they believed they were in danger, therefore, I am sure they believed Storey was the subject of the radio call of the man with a gun at Rite Aid. Based upon the information available to them and Storey's actions, it would be reasonable to believe that Storey had a gun and was pointing it at them.

Go outside in the dark, have one of your other cop-hating friends hold something in their hand and run away from you. Chase after him and have him turn and give yourself 1 second to determine what was in his hand. I bet you won't be able to.

Go to the Citizen's Academy and ask to be put on the tactical scenario simulator and see how quick you'd pull the trigger when an angry man on a traffic stop pulls out a wallet. Or how many times he'd get a shot off before you even un-holstered your weapon.

If a jury gives the family one dollar, well, the citizens of Los Angeles get the police department they want. And I'm guessing, citizen and in-bred, you don't want a department at all. You'd probably be the first victims or the unruly mob.

[Creole]

Tragic incidents like this will continue to happen until the LAPD starts treating its experienced officers better, stops the exodus of experienced officers leaving the LAPD for other departments & stops the nepotism & hiring of bottom barrel applicants.

[LAPD Vet]

"Cowboy", huh? "ONLY" a cell phone..."Gun Slinger mentality?" It amazes me that folks get on here and actually believe that this post will contain all the pertinet information regarding any shooting.

It's very much under investigation and you'll never know the true story unless you were there or a part of the review board. I hope you don't expect that a few lines printed on a page would enable you to understand why deadly force was used.

Oh, that's right, Cops have to get shot first before they can shoot...but, I bet you don't have to worry about getting killed on your way to the copy machine.

[Master of the Obvious]

Dear Inbred and Citizen,

I think that you will both agree with me that the Officers should have ignored the radio call comments about a gun, then used their department-issue Zoom vision to see if the object was a gun or not. Then if it had been, they should have shot the gun out of the suspect's hand without hurting him.

Although, because it wasn't a gun, they should have used their injury-proof ray-gun to stop the suspect in his tracks and keep him from running away.

Nice work Inbred and Citizen, I hear the Consent Decree is hiring.

-Master of the Obvious

[on the brite side]

Why do people not understand why this person was shot and killed? Heelllooooo,he brought a cell phone to a gunfight...guns are always gonna win..duh..

[KS]

Bunch is tactically sound and a damn good street cop. Unless you were in his shoes with him and in his head at the moment of that shooting, are you really in a position to specualte what truly transpired that night? That press release is about as complete as most FI's. Good job Bunch.