An off-duty Los Angeles police officer was shot and killed in a robbery as he was house-hunting with his girlfriend, officials said.
The Los Angeles Police Department identified the officer as Fernando Arroyos, 27. He was a three-year veteran of the force, assigned to the Olympic Division.
The shooting occurred Monday evening in the 1700 block of East 87th Street in unincorporated Los Angeles, said the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, which is leading the investigation.
Police Chief Michel Moore told members of the Board of Police Commissioners on Tuesday that Arroyos was killed in a gunfight with three men who tried to rob him.
Arroyos had been looking at a home to buy with his girlfriend when the couple were approached by robbers, two of whom opened fire, detectives told NBC Los Angeles.
Arroyos told his girlfriend to run and exchanged gunfire with the people but was struck, they said.
Moore told board members that Arroyos had a "bright future" that was "taken away" in a street robbery.
Deputies who responded at 9:16 p.m. following a report about an assault with a deadly weapon and a gunshot victim found Arroyos “lying unresponsive” in the alley suffering at least one gunshot wound, the sheriff's office said.
He was taken to Saint Francis Medical Center, where he was later pronounced dead.
Four people have been arrested, the sheriff’s department said Wednesday. Their names and charges have not been released.
“We can’t comment any further on the case right now, because we’re still right in the middle of investigating,” Sheriff Alex Villanueva said in a Facebook video Wednesday.
The sheriff’s department said earlier that it also received a report of a second man suffering from a gunshot wound a few miles from the original shooting scene. He was taken to a hospital and treated, it said.
“It is yet to be determined if that individual, or that shooting incident, are related to this incident,” the sheriff’s department said in an earlier statement.
Mayor Eric Garcetti paid tribute to Arroyos at a news conference about an unrelated matter Tuesday.
“This man died a hero trying to defend himself and his girlfriend," he said.
Anyone with information about this incident is encouraged to contact the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department’s Homicide Bureau at (323) 890-5500 or report tips anonymously at Crime Stoppers by dialing (800) 222-TIPS (8477).
CORRECTION (Jan. 12, 2022, 9 p.m. ET): A photo caption in an earlier version of this article misstated when Officer Fernando Arroyos was shot and killed. It was Monday, not Jan. 10, 2020.