Updated: 12:30 p.m. on April 7, 2026
The Los Angeles Police Department on Monday identified the man shot and killed by officers in Westmont last week.
According to a LAPD press release, officers fatally shot Eliar Real Hernandez near the intersection of Van Buren Avenue and 112th Street. The incident came on the heels of an earlier shooting at a gas station on Vermont Avenue, several blocks away.
The department did not name the officers who shot Hernandez. An LAPD spokesperson told The LA Local those details will come at a later date.
The LA County Medical Examiner’s office determined gunshot wounds were the cause of Hernandez’s death.
According to the LAPD release, police first responded to reports of the gas station shooting shortly after 1 a.m. Police said in a statement Friday that a man shot at the gas station was hospitalized but in stable condition.
Officers eventually found Hernandez, who they said matched a description of the suspected gunman at the gas station, a few blocks away in the unincorporated residential neighborhood of Westmont.
LAPD said Hernandez was seen “walking on the sidewalk while holding a handgun pointed at his head,” and he did not comply with commands from officers. Officers opened fire after Hernandez turned toward them, according to the release.
The LA Local reviewed footage from a nearby home’s security cameras that appears to show officers yelling commands to a man, followed by a succession of eight loud bangs.
Police took Hernandez into custody, but he was later pronounced dead at the scene by LA Fire Department paramedics, according to the release. The department previously said Hernandez had been pronounced deceased by paramedics from the LA County Fire Department.
Investigators determined Hernandez had been in possession of a loaded 9-millimeter ghost gun, an illegally manufactured, untraceable firearm,that was found at the scene.
The shooting is under investigation by the LAPD’s Force Investigation Division, according to the department. A spokesperson for the LA County District Attorney’s Office, which reviews most police shootings in the county, told The LA Local Friday that personnel are aware of the shooting.
Police said there were no other injuries from the incident.
