The suspect in a shooting that left a 20-year-old woman and her 22-year-old brother dead was wounded in an officer-involved shooting early Friday near Joyner Elementary School in City Heights.
Officers initially spotted 39-year-old Felipe DeJesus Vega — who had been at large since the fatal shooting Sunday night — around 9:30 p.m. Thursday about a block away from the Mountain View-area home where Alex Velarde and Arline Iribe were killed. He refused to pull over and at some point during the roughly 20-minute pursuit, he tossed a handgun out of his car window, Hastings said.
Vega pulled into an apartment complex in the vicinity of Myrtle and Van Dyke avenues and holed up inside his green Oldsmobile Cutlass. Hastings said officers and negotiators attempted to coax Vega out of the car, then resorted to using pepper spray and a police dog, but they had little effect.
The suspect exited his car more than two hours later. Vega reached for something in his waistband and turned toward officers, prompting an 11-year police department veteran to shoot him once in the upper torso, according to the lieutenant.
He was taken to a hospital to be treated for the non-life-threatening wound and was listed in stable condition, authorities said.
The apartment complex was evacuated, and no other injuries were reported.
Vega allegedly shot Velarde and Iribe with a pistol in the 1100 block of South 43rd Street. The siblings died on a rear driveway.
Witnesses told investigators the victims had been arguing with Vega prior to the gunfire, police said. It was not immediately clear what the disagreement was about.
