The Region : Suspect Killed, Officer Hurt in Gunfight

A 36-year-old Los Angeles man was killed and an off-duty Los Angeles police officer seriously wounded in an early morning shoot-out at a downtown bar, police reported. The victim, who was not identified pending notification of relatives, was found dead in an alley several blocks from the Venus Bar at 707 S. Central Ave., where he had shot Newton Division Officer Oscar LaMarque, 32. “A disturbance of unknown origin . . . that did not involve the officer” started in the bar’s doorway, Lt. Charles Higbie said. The man pointed a handgun at LaMarque, who had just finished work and was in civilian clothes, shooting him four times. The officer returned the fire with his own weapon and wounded the man, who was helped into a car by several others, Higbie said. LaMarque was in serious but stable condition at County-USC Medical Center with three bullet wounds in his right leg and one in the stomach. The dead man was shot three or four times in the upper torso, Higbie said.