A man was found dead Thursday after a shooting encounter with California Highway Patrol officers prompted the closure of southbound lanes of the 605 Freeway in Los Alamitos for hours.
The incident unfolded about 9:20 a.m. as two officers assisting Caltrans workers on a maintenance project found a man amid the brush the Katella Avenue on-ramp.
The workers then alerted two CHP officers about the man, they confronted him and an officer-involved shooting occurred, CHP Officer Dwane Graham said without elaborating.
He would not say who fired shots or whether the man was struck by an officer’s bullets.
A Caltrans spokesman told the Los Angeles Times that the man, who was near a tent in the area, fired at an officer.
At one point, CHP officers had their guns drawn and pointed into brush adjacent to the freeway of ramp, aerial video from Sky5 showed.
An officer suffered minor to moderate injuries as a result of the encounter, Graham said.
Authorities lost track of the man and searched the area for hours until finding him dead around noon. The Associated Press reported he was found inside a tent.
As a result of the shooting, all southbound lanes of the highway were closed from Cerritos Avenue to Katella Avenue until about 1 p.m. for an investigation.
The northbound lanes of the highway remained open, but traffic was backed up for miles in the area. The on and off ramps at Katella Avenue remained closed through the early evening.
No further details about the incident have been released.
Check back for updates on this developing story.
