Armed murder suspect fatally shot by law enforcement on Calif. freeway interchange

PARAMOUNT, Calif. (KCAL/KCBS) – An armed murder suspect on the run was shot and killed by California law enforcement officers during a standoff on a freeway interchange.

Aerial footage shows the suspect armed with a gun, pacing around angrily on a freeway transition road Tuesday morning.

Moments later he opened fire. California Highway Patrol officers and Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department deputies fired back, killing the suspect.

KCAL’s footage stops before law enforcement officers fired their weapons.

Relatives identified the wanted man as 35-year-old Jesse Medrano.

They said the shootout happened two days after Medrano allegedly shot three of his family members at their South Los Angeles home, killing his father, 61-year-old Ruben Marrufo.

The suspect’s uncle, Ricardo Grajeva, and his wife Gloria Medrano were also hurt.

The couple’s daughter, Mariana Grajeva, said she witnessed it all.

“I saw when my dad fell to the ground, and that’s when I went ahead and went inside because since I am pregnant, I was like, ‘I have to think about my baby, and this man has a gun and I don’t want him to shoot me,’” she said.

Grajeva said Medrano appeared to be on drugs and had been on the run until CHP and sheriff’s deputies pulled up on a minivan he was driving that was stopped on the freeway interchange.

Authorities said the suspect refused to drop his weapon, which led to a gunfight with deputies and officers.

A CHP officer was grazed and treated in the back of a cruiser.

Medrano was rushed to the hospital, where he died.

“I’m more mad at the fact that he was killed rather than just taken into custody and pay the price, pay the time,” Grajeva said.

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