One dead and three others hospitalized in West Hills California shooting

A woman and a man are in police custody after a gunman opened fire in a busy parking lot outside a California Trader Joe’s leaving at least one dead and three injured. 

Police said the man ‘called a friend to pick him up’ after reportedly fleeing the scene, ditching his car and hiding under a tree while he waited for them.

The man is believed to have then jumped into a ‘red Corolla being driven by a woman’ before at least five police vehicles created a barricade and stopped the pair.

Aerial footage of the arrest shows a man lying on the ground of a road nearby the car and a woman stepping out of the vehicle with her arms raised before the pair were taken into police custody.

At least one person has died and three others hospitalized after a shooting broke out in a busy West Hills shopping center in southern California, with a man and woman in police custody

Its believed the man called the woman after fleeing the scene, ditching his car and hiding under a tree until she came to pick him up 

Officers responded to reports of a shooting near Fallbrook Avenue and Bowen Street at about 3:45pm on Saturday afternoon with footage uploaded to Citizen showing a large police presence and emergency responders in the parking lot.

Businesses were also seen cordoned off near the scene outside a Trader Joe’s, a Chili’s restaurant and Bob’s Discount Furniture store.

Footage from the parking lot – uploaded to Twitter by CaliforniaNewsWatch – showed emergency services treating at least one victim for a gunshot wound to the chest and performing CPR.

The person killed is a 45-year-old man. The three other victims were a 35-year-old woman, a 35-year-old man and a 45-year-old man, all in a serious or critical condition, Los Angeles Police Department said. 

One person is dead and two others are in a critical condition after a gunman opened fire at a Trader Joe’s in southern California

Businesses were also seen cordoned off near the scene outside a Trader Joe’s, a Chili’s restaurant and Bob’s Discount Furniture store

Adam Strickland who was coming out of a movie theatre told KTLA that he didn’t even realize he was walking out onto a crime scene. 

‘I heard a couple of pops and it didn’t even occur to me that they were gunshots until I saw people running down the parking lot, ‘said Strickland. 

‘Behind me, I saw a couple people panicking and the guy who got shot just slowly fell to the ground and the people who were with him started panicking. A guy came in and started putting pressure on the guy’s wound.’

The deadly attack saw at least one suspect fleeing the scene in a ‘red Honda Civic’ before they ditched their car and called their friend, according to Fox News.

A body lay covered in the parking lot of the busy West Hills shopping center 

An item was also reportedly ditched out the window of a vehicle but it remains unclear whether it was his vehicle or his friend’s vehicle. Units have responded to retrieve the item. 

The LAPD had initially thought the man had called an Uber, according to the outlet, but a short pursuit of a ‘red Corolla,’ which was being driven by a woman, confirmed that he’d called a friend.

The circumstances leading up to the shooting remain unclear as authorities continue to investigate. 

This is a developing story.