5 Freeway Reopens In San Fernando Valley Following Officer-Involved Shooting
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com/AP) — All lanes of the 5 Freeway were reopened Tuesday after an officer-involved shooting occurred during a police pursuit in the San Fernando Valley.
On Monday, Artyom Gasparyan, 32, was critically wounded in a shooting with police on the freeway, according to the Los Angeles Police Department.
During the pursuit, Gasparyan drove the wrong way on the freeway and crashed into a car carrying a woman and child. They had minor injuries.
The shooting shut down all lanes of the busy freeway, causing traffic to back up for miles during rush hour. Two southbound lanes were reopened about three hours later, but all the rest of the freeway remained closed until early Tuesday morning, City News Service reported.
Detectives had been asking for the public's help to find Gasparyan, whom they described as armed and dangerous.
Police say Gasparyan was suspected in a series of crimes in the Los Angeles area beginning Dec. 6, including the Dec. 30 shooting death of a 37-year-old man found lying near a car. He's also suspected in a Dec. 9 shooting in Burbank in which a 67-year-old man was shot multiple times outside his home and a carjacking on Friday.
Gasparyan committed a number of the crimes with a man named Daniel Ramirez, detectives added.
On Friday, Ramirez led police on a pursuit that began in Carson and ended with a standoff in Long Beach. After the chase, police said Ramirez ran into a home, shot two men, stabbed another and then fatally turned the gun on himself.
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