LAPD homeless outreach officer shoots armed suspect in Skid Row
The Los Angeles Police Department identified the homeless outreach officer who shot an armed suspect in Skid Row last week.
The shooting happened on April 18 at 2:20 p.m. when a Resources Enhancement Services Enforcement Team (RESET) responded to the area of San Pedro and Sixth Streets for an apparent sexual assault.
The officers determined that the possible suspect had left the area and called for their RESET supervisor Sergeant Mark Carbonell to their location. As the initial team and their supervisor waited by their car, 32-year-old Kyle Harpt approached the officers with a knife in his right hand, according to the LAPD.
Investigators said Harpt suddenly ran toward the homeless outreach supervisor while raising his knife, prompting the officer to open fire.
The suspect collapsed on the sidewalk after being wounded. Luckily, an LA Fire Department crew was already nearby and started treating Harpt before taking him to a nearby hospital. Harpt was admitted to the hospital in stable condition.
No one else was wounded in the shooting.
Detectives said Harpt was not the sexual assault suspect the RESET team was looking for and had no connection to the case.
Officers booked him for attempted murder. Investigators found an 8-inch folding knife with a 3-inch blade at the scene.
LAPD's Force Investigation Division launched a probe into the shooting and is still investigating the incident.
In a 2018 LAPD report on homelessness, the department said that the RESET unit is "tasked with the deployment of resources, homeless outreach, and enforcement" within Skid Row.
They are essentially uniformed officers who specially patrol one of the main homelessness hubs in LA County.
"The mission of RESET is a fine balance of crime suppression, problem solving and homeless outreach," the department wrote in the report. "The work of RESET is key to reducing the incidences of crime and fear on Skid Row."
