No motive determined yet in deadly Monterey Park gun battle [Updated]

Monterey Park police were continuing to investigate Monday a deadly gun battle that erupted when police responded to a stabbing report apparently linked to a road-rage incident, officials said.

One suspected gunman was shot and killed by police and a police officer and two bystanders were wounded when crossfire broke out Sunday about 5 p.m. at South Garfield and Newmark avenues, a busy commercial area that might have been the scene of an earlier hit-and-run crash, officials said.

[Updated at 12:22 p.m.: The dead suspect was identified as Edgar Battad, 63, said sheriff's spokesman Steve Whitmore. This post has been revised to reflect that information.]

The stabbing victim, whose name was not released, was injured in his upper body and was in stable condition at a hospital, officials said.

Monterey Park Police Officer Gilbert Alvarez suffered a grazing wound to the head and was in stable condition at County-USC Medical Center, officials said.

The conditions of the bystanders were not immediately available. One was shot in the leg, officials said.

Authorities evacuated 40 to 50 residents Sunday and surrounded an apartment building where they believed a second assailant may have been hiding, but a search turned up nothing, officials said.

A resident who asked that her name not be used said she heard "a lot of shots" and officers ordering someone to "put the gun down." Bullets shattered the windows of numerous cars on Newmark, including police cruisers.

Monterey Park Police Capt. Eugene Harris said officers killed Battad after he opened fire on them.

"It was very chaotic," Harris said. "There were people everywhere."

Officers from the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department and the Alhambra, Montebello and Pasadena police departments also were on scene.

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-- Gale Holland

Photo: Police tags mark bullet holes in the door and windows of a home that was the scene of a gun battle Sunday that left a suspect dead and a police officer and two bystanders wounded. Credit: Al Seib / Los Angeles Times

Comments

[Duped Tax Payer]

Good - money saved. Monterey Park used to be a very safer area....not anymore.