A security guard fatally shot a man suspected of stabbing a 9-year-old boy and a 25-year-old woman Tuesday evening at a Target store in downtown Los Angeles, police said.
The attacker was declared dead at a hospital, said Officer Luis Garcia, a Los Angeles Police Department spokesperson. The stabbing victims remained in critical condition Tuesday night, Garcia said.
The incident was reported just after 6:20 pm at the Target location at 7th and Figueroa streets in the FIGat7th shopping mall.
The boy was at the store with his mother, who was not present at the time of the attack, Chief Michel Moore said in footage of a news conference broadcast by KCBS-TV Channel 2.
The attacker, identified by Moore as a 40-year-old man, confronted the boy and told him that he was going to stab and kill him, the chief said. The child tried to flee but was stabbed in the back, suffering a laceration on his right shoulder.
Bystanders tried to come to the boy’s aid, and the attacker headed down an aisle where he came across a group of women and stabbed a 25-year-old woman in the chest, Moore said.
Others pulled the woman into a pharmacy, and the attacker moved toward the front of the store where he was confronted by an armed security officer, the chief said. The security officer opened fire at least once, hitting the knife-wielding man in the stomach.
The Los Angeles Police Department is investigating the scene and asked anyone with information to call the Central Area station.
“There is no active threat to the general public at this time,” the LAPD’s Central Area tweeted at 7:35 pm
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