A deputy from the West Hollywood Sheriff’s Station reportedly mistook a liquor store manager for a suspect who had just robbed the store early Sunday morning and fired eight shots at the employee. The manager, who was not struck by the gunfire, had reportedly called 911 minutes before the 2 a.m. incident on Oct. 3.

According to Steve Whitmore, senior media advisor for the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, the deputy thought the manager of the Carmel Liquor store at the corner of Santa Monica Boulevard and Havenhurst Drive had a gun in his hand. The sheriff’s department’s Internal Affairs Bureau and the Los Angeles Office of Independent Review, an outside organization overseeing the sheriff’s department, are currently investigating the shooting.

The deputy who fired the shots was a trainee accompanied by a training deputy. Whitmore said the responding deputies did not have a detailed description of the suspect, who was only identified as an African American man armed with a handgun. The manager, who is also African American, came out of the store and ran towards the deputies. He possibly had keys in his hand as he pointed his index finger in a direction behind the deputies to alert them where the suspect had ran, Whitmore said.

“Basically we got a call that the suspect was armed and that he was at the store. When they pulled up, this individual came running out to the deputies. He may have been holding keys and they thought he had a weapon,” Whitmore said. “The policy is, if the deputy feels his or a member of the public’s life is in danger, he is legally obligated to use deadly force. There are a lot of questions that need to be answered, and that is why we are conducting the reviews.”

Whitmore said an armed robbery had occurred at the store three weeks earlier, and the deputy who fired the shots was one of the officials that responded to that incident. He said he did not know how long the deputy had been in training or had been assigned to the West Hollywood Station, but stated that all deputies spend several years working other assignments prior to being deployed to the field. Whitmore also said he didn’t know how far away the deputy was from the manager when the shots were fired.

“These questions are all questions that will be addressed during the investigations, but it takes time,” Whitmore added.

Authorities are still searching for the African American male suspect who robbed the liquor store. He was accompanied by an African American female suspect, but no further information was provided. Anyone with information about the robbery is asked to contact detectives at the West Hollywood Sheriff’s Station at (310)855-8850.