Police say a man was shot and killed in downtown Los Angeles early Saturday morning when he got in the way of three people who were trying to take off a catalytic converter from a car.
Officer Jader Chaves, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles Police Department, said that the man met the suspects around 3:25 a.m. near Pico Boulevard and Hope Street. They all got away in a car after one of them shot him, Chaves said.
The person, who was thought to be between 30 and 35 years old, was taken to a nearby hospital and declared dead there.
There were no new information available right away.
Precious metals like rhodium, palladium, and platinum are found in the catalytic converter, which is an exhaust pollution control device that is usually under the chassis of a vehicle. Thieves can make a lot of money by selling them to places that sell car parts or scrap metal, where the highly valuable metals can be taken out and melted down.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, thefts of catalytic converters went through the roof in California. Some people thought this was because the economy was getting worse. Because of this trend, some states passed laws that make it illegal for recyclers to buy the part from anyone other than the legal owner or a registered dealer. The laws also make it more serious for buyers who don’t prove that a catalytic converter wasn’t stolen.
