Drug deal at a Los Angeles Trader Joe's led to shootout that killed 1, injured 3, police say

One person died and three others were injured after a drug deal in a Trader Joe's parking lot in the West Hills section of Los Angeles led to a shootout.

"Our preliminary investigation has revealed that the dispute centered around a narcotics transaction in the area," Los Angeles Police Department Deputy Chief Alan Hamilton said Saturday in a press conference, as KCAL reported.

"During that dispute, multiple suspects produced firearms and fired at each other."

Authorities began investigating a reported "gun battle" in the parking lot of a Trader Joe's at Fallbrook Center in the San Fernando Valley Saturday afternoon, the Los Angeles Times reported.

After the collision, the suspect switched to a different vehicle as the LAPD airship monitored from above. By that time, Hamilton said, one of the gunshot victims at the Trader Joe's parking lot scene had died, making the fleeing person a murder suspect.

It took ground units "two to three minutes" of pursuit before the suspect pulled over. The driver of the car was female. She and the male passenger were taken into custody without incident.

Hamilton says the male passenger is the person they believed fled the scene in the first car that had the windows shot out.

Two firearms were recovered, Hamilton said, adding that the investigation was ongoing and the crime scene was very large.

A total of four victims were struck by gunfire, authorities said. One died in the parking lot of the Trader Joe's in West Hills. The other three were transported to medical care, none of whom are believed to have life-threatening injuries.

"When they are released, we will continue our investigation with interviews of the people who were injured," Hamilton said, adding that there is a possibility some of the people who were injured may be taken into custody based on what the investigation reveals.

"Everyone that we know of from this incident either was taken into custody here, is at the hospital, or was taken into custody at the termination of the pursuit," Hamilton said.

Watch coverage of the deadly shooting outside a Los Angeles Trader Joe's from ABC News below.

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