A Los Angeles Police Department officer shot and wounded a 47-year-old woman in the parking structure of the Hollywood & Highland center Friday morning after she allegedly started fighting with another woman and then pointed a gun at the officer, a police commander said.
Diamond Vargas was shot in a leg and taken to a hospital for treatment of her wound. She was booked on a charge of assault with a deadly weapon against a police officer, LAPD Commander Andrew Smith said. According to jail records, Vargas was being held on $100,000 bail.
The shooting was in a lower-level parking area at the Hollywood & Highland center, police said. Officers were dispatched to the scene at 1:24 a.m. in response to a report of an assault with a deadly weapon on the third floor of the parking structure, said Lt. Michael Ling of the LAPD’s Hollywood Station.
A security officer at the parking structure called police, reporting that there was a fight at the location, Ling said.
The suspect had an argument with another woman, Smith said.
“She first pulled out a bat and then she armed herself with a gun and pointed it at a responding officer and that’s when the officer-involved shooting took place,” he said.
Neither Smith nor Ling disclosed what the alleged fight was about.
An internal investigation was quickly begun, with every available supervisor and officer sent to the scene, said a sergeant at the Hollywood Station.
The Dolby Theater, where the Oscars are held, is in the Hollywood & Highland complex.
