Paramedics who rushed to the scene pronounced the girl dead at the scene.
Angels:
A teenage girl shot herself with an officer’s gun in the lobby of a California sheriff’s station, authorities said Monday.
The girl, who has not been named, started banging on the station door in City of Industry, near Los Angeles, on Sunday night.
When the police went to open the door, the girl managed to wrest a military-style weapon from one of them.
“The juvenile burst into the lobby, reached for the officer’s holstered firearm,” the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said in a news release.
“A conflict occurred between officers and a juvenile who was armed with an officer’s firearm,” the release said.
“During the fight, the teenager suffered a self-inflicted gunshot wound.”
Paramedics who rushed to the scene pronounced the girl dead at the scene.
Homicide detectives are investigating the incident, which officials said appears to stem from a call police received about a domestic disturbance.
American police officers are generally armed and carry weapons at all times.
The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said Sunday’s death was “not an officer-involved shooting,” the term used when officers fire a weapon.
Violent clashes between police and the public are not uncommon in the country.
A Washington Post tally shows that more than 1,100 people have been shot and killed by police across the country in the past 12 months.
The numbers are not official because police departments are not required to report incidents to the federal government.
Police and their supporters say the proliferation of guns in American society means officers must assume the people they interact with may be armed.
There are more guns than people in the United States, and guns kill tens of thousands of people every year.
Polls show that a majority of Americans support tighter gun controls, but the powerful gun lobby and the mobilization of voters who support the country’s strong gun culture make it difficult for Congress to act.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
