Redondo Beach police wound man on Esplanade in domestic violence call
Neighbors gather outside a Redondo Beach homewhere police shot and wounded a man after responding to calls about possible domestic violence on Tuesday, Jan. 8. Photo
“I was going down in the elevator to get my mail, and I heard three pops. When I got out on the ground floor, I started walking around,” a resident, who identified himself only as Chris and who lives near the corner of Esplanade and Avenue B, said Tuesday evening.
The pops he heard were gunshots by Redondo Beach police responding to multiple 911 calls concerning possible domestic violence at a neighboring house.
Moments later, a woman in front of the house yelled at the police, “You killed my son! I won’t get a chance because he’s going to be dead before I see him.” Beside her, a man cursed at police, yelling, “[They] killed my youngest son, unnecessarily.”
The woman was later led into the home by a Redondo officer.
According to a statement from RBPD Lt. Shawn Freeman, officers responding to the 911 calls encountered an armed, adult male and fired an unknown number of times, wounding him. The man was taken by Redondo paramedics to a local hospital.
Lt. Freeman did not state what kind of weapon the suspect was holding.
Sources confirmed that the wounded man is Luke Carlson, son of Jeanne Zimmer and Jeff Carlson. Zimmer successfully represented Councilman Nils Nehrenheim in an election law lawsuit against residents backed by developer CenterCal Properties.
Carlson underwent surgery Wednesday morning and is said to be recovering.
The scene was crowded in the aftermath of the shooting with neighbors from both north and south of the building crowded around the cordoned-off area. Medical responders had blocked off Avenue B and the alleyway behind the home, while police had blocked the Esplanade in front of the house.
Following department protocol in cases involving officer shootings, RBPD handed the investigation to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. The last officer-involved shooting in Redondo Beach was in July, when a man was shot and killed outside his home after confronting officers with a “realistic-looking” pellet gun.
According to L.A. County District Attorney spokesman Ricardo Santiago, charges have not been filed against Carlson as of Jan. 11.
This story has been updated to reflect the identity and status of the man wounded by police.