An LAPD officer may have mistook a fellow officer’s ‘bean bag’ shotgun for real gunfire when he shot a Corvette driver dead live on TV.
Brian Beaird, 51, led police on an hour-long high-speed chase through the streets of Los Angeles last night but died from a gunshot wound after crashing his silver Corvette and trying to escape on foot.
Video captured the moment when Beaird seemed to speed through a red light and crashed into the back half of a Nissan Maxima.
LAPD is now investigating claims that when one officer fired a non-lethal ‘bean bag’ round, another mistook it for gunfire and used a real weapon.
‘The suspect got out of the vehicle and at that point, something occurred that prompted the officer-involved shooting,’ Lt Neiman said.
When the car chase was broadcast live by KTLA-TV, video showed the man getting out of his car, running around the back of the Corvette and heading up East Olympic Blvd before being shot, clutching his stomach and falling to the ground.
Lt Neiman says there was ‘great concern that he was going to hurt someone severely’.
LAPD Cmdr. Alexander Smith told 10news: ‘Policy dictates that the officer using the non-lethal bean bag shotgun notify other officers so they don’t think lethal force is being used’.
He added that part of the investigation will be whether verbal warning was given.
Beaird’s brother John said during the chase, Beaird called his father asking, ‘Why are they after me? I didn’t do anything.’
Officers from three police agencies tailed the man for more than an hour on Friday night starting at 9pm when police in South Gate attempted to pull him over for reckless driving and a possible DUI.
When the driver refused to pull over, police followed him in cars and with a helicopter as he spend through Cudahy, Huntington Park, South Gate, Walnut Park and into South Los Angeles.
Sky9’s Meghan Reyes reported that the man was often driving without his headlights on and ‘just driving in circles’.
The man’s corvette was also outfitted with special tires that resisted puncture when police tried to use a spike strip to stop him.
The chase finally came to an end around 10:30pm when he sped through a light and hit another driver crossing the intersection in front of him in a T-bone collision.
The corvette spun all the way around before stopping on the side of the road at the intersection of South Los Angeles St and East Olympic Blvd.
The other car was thrown into a fire hydrant which sent water shooting into the air and spilling onto the street.
Police say the other driver was treated for non-life threatening injuries.
Beaird attempted to back up his Corvette and continue driving but rammed into a light post and couldn’t get the car to move.
He stumbled out of the vehicle and attempted to run down East Olympic Blvd before being shot by police and crumpling over.
CBS 2’s Melanie Woodrow was at the scene, and reported seeing paramedics doing ‘vigorous’ chest compressions on the driver.
His death was not confirmed until early Saturday morning.
Source: Daily Mail