Long Beach Cops Involved In Four Deaths In Past Week, More Than 20 This Year

At about 7 p.m. Sunday night, Long Beach police officers noticed a stolen car at the intersection of Pacific Coast Highway and Magnolia Ave. Officers tried to stop the car, but the driver roared away, leading the cops on a high speed chase that ended when he crashed the vehicle on the 103 Freeway, which dead ends in Terminal Island.

The driver perished at the scene and his passenger, who tried to flee, was quickly arrested. The incident marked the fourth time in a week that Long Beach police were involved in a fatality in one week, bringing the total number of officer-involved deaths in the city to more than 20 so far this year.

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The last death happened just last Tuesday, in the early hours of Nov. 19, when police pulled over Tyler Damon Woods at the intersection of Third Street and Walnut Ave. He immediately took off running, and while some officers chased after him, others interviewed the passengers and determined that the driver was wanted in connection with an alleged carjacking.

The suspect was later spotted jumping from roof to roof along Fourth Street. Police cornered him, and although he began to cooperate with their orders to surrender, he apparently began to turn towards the officers, who fatally shot the unarmed 19-year-old man. That shooting marked the Long Beach Police Department's 20th of the year, the highest number of officer-involved shootings since 2008.

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