Long Beach police shoot man suspected in screwdriver stabbing

Long Beach police shot a suspect who was armed with a screwdriver Tuesday in the Belmont Shore neighborhood, after one person was seriously injured in a stabbing and four others suffered minor injuries, police and fire personnel said.

The stabbing victim was rushed to a trauma center with a “non-life-threatening” injury, said Eric Stachura, public information officer for the Long Beach police. The four others were treated for minor injuries at the scene, according to Brian Fisk, a spokesperson for the Long Beach Fire Department.

The Long Beach Police Department tweeted that officers arrived at 2nd Street around 11:54 a.m. and shot the suspect.

He was sent to a local hospital for treatment of a “non-life-threatening gunshot wound to the upper body,” according to Stachura.

Police reported that the suspect assaulted a woman and man near Park Avenue and Livingston Drive. He then walked east and entered the Livingston Park Playground. There, the suspect punched a man, who dropped the child he was carrying to the ground. The child and man suffered minor injuries.

The suspect then headed toward 2nd Street, where he stabbed a man in the upper body with a screwdriver, Long Beach police confirmed.

It was on 2nd Street that Long Beach police shot the suspect, about six minutes after receiving a call. According to police, they fired as the suspect tried to enter a residential property.

“The suspect was holding an unknown weapon,” Stachura said in a statement. “Officers attempted to deescalate the situation.” Stachura said the officers weren’t immediately aware that the weapon was a screwdriver, which they recovered after the incident.

First responders from the Long Beach Fire Department treated the suspect and victims before they were either released or transported to a hospital.

Police are uncertain of a motive in the attacks.