A man wielding a machete was critically injured after being shot by police outside a hospital in Orange County on Wednesday morning, following a significant road rage incident that led to a lockdown.
The incident prompted UCI Health in Los Alamitos to initiate a lockdown, which lasted for several hours. The Long Beach Police Department had initially responded around 10 a.m. to reports of a driver under the influence and engaged in aggressive driving that began in Long Beach and concluded near the Los Alamitos hospital. According to a statement from the Police Department, the suspect allegedly collided with a Long Beach Fire Department vehicle carrying a patient while driving.
Authorities reported that the driver subsequently abandoned his vehicle in Los Alamitos and fled on foot. Police established a perimeter around the hospital and deployed SWAT units. Multiple agencies, including the police departments of Los Alamitos, Long Beach, and Cypress, were involved in the response. Efforts by crisis negotiators to de-escalate the situation with the suspect proved unsuccessful, as stated by Robert Acosta, spokesperson for the Los Alamitos Police Department.
Officers then resorted to firing less-lethal rounds. Video footage captured the confrontation outside the hospital, showing a shirtless man brandishing a machete at officers who were discharging less-lethal projectiles. At one point, the suspect charged the officers and moved behind vehicles as gunfire was heard. Bystanders were audibly distressed during the unfolding event.
The suspect sustained gunshot wounds from police fire and was transported to a nearby trauma center. Acosta confirmed that the suspect's condition was critical but stable and that he was undergoing surgery on Wednesday afternoon. The officers who discharged their weapons were not from the Long Beach Police Department, according to their statement. Acosta indicated that officers from two of the responding police agencies fired their weapons multiple times. The Orange County district attorney’s office has not yet provided a comment.
