Long Beach California police shoot black teenager after graffiti complaints

A California teenager has been shot and critically wounded by police responding to complaints about graffiti tagging by trespassers in an empty apartment.

Long Beach police arriving on the scene spotted a broken window and an open window in the downtown building. At some point one of the officers opened fire when he spotted a young man inside, according to a police spokeswoman, who provided no other details about what led up to the shooting. The 19-year-old was hit by an unknown number of bullets.

Police didn't release the identity of the teen or the officer. The shooting is being investigated by homicide detectives. Police were spotted at the scene questioning a man and woman in handcuffs, reported the Long Beach Press-Telegram. The Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office is conducting a separate investigation, which occurs automatically in all officer-involved shootings.

The incident is the most recent in a long string of controversial police shootings of suspects, many of them white officers firing on blacks. Just last week volunteer Oklahoma officer Robert Bates shot dead a suspect when he thought he was firing his stun gun. The race of the people involved in yesterday's incident has not been released.