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Ontario police shot and killed a 17-year-old Ontario boy Thursday after he robbed a restaurant, then skateboarded down Archibald Avenue threatening passers-by with a handgun before being confronted by officers, authorities said.
The shooting took place shortly after 3:45 p.m. after police responded to numerous 911 calls reporting a gun-toting teen was riding a skateboard along Archibald Avenue near Brookside Street, Ontario police Sgt. Jeff Higbee said.
More than half-a-dozen callers reported the teen was pointing the weapon at random at people and cars while screaming, “I have a gun,” the sergeant said.
When officers confronted the armed teen, he refused to drop the weapon and an officer-involved shooting occurred, Higbee said. Further details regarding the circumstances of the shooting were not available.
Paramedics took the wounded suspect to a hospital where he was pronounced dead, officials said.
The suspect’s bizarre and erratic behavior prior to the incident, as well as a suicide note discovered at his home, led investigators to look into the possibility the officer-involved shooting was a “suicide by cop.”
Police learned that just prior to the shooting, the young man had just robbed a nearby Jack-In-The-Box restaurant at Archibald Avenue and Riverside Drive, Higbee said.
He brandished a gun and demanded money from the store, Higbee said. But as the teen fled, he handed over at least some of the stolen cash to a customer inside the restaurant.
The name of the suspect was not released Thursday night.
By Beatriz Valenzuela, San Bernardino Sun
and Brian Day, San Gabriel Valley Tribune
