Deputy shoots man who had earlier wounded a transit officer.

A 31-year-old gunman is killed in Walnut Park three hours after violent confrontation.

A sheriff ’s deputy shot and killed a gunman who wounded another law enforcement officer during a confrontation early Saturday in Southeast Los Angeles, authorities said.

The 31-year-old gunman was shot about 7:10 a.m. in the 2700 block of Grand Avenue in the Walnut Park area, said Lt. Holly Francisco, of the Los Angeles County Sheriff ’s Department. The gunman, described only as a Latino man, has not been identified.

Three hours earlier, the gunman shot and wounded a transit police deputy who approached him near the intersection of Pacific Boulevard and Grand, authorities said. He then f led on foot.

Assisted by search dogs, deputies found the man three hours later in a dumpster on Grand, about a block and a half east of the first shooting. When the man pulled out a gun, a special enforcement deputy shot and killed him, Francisco said.

Paramedics pronounced the man dead at the scene. His identity will not be released until his family has been notified, Francisco said.

The deputy who was shot is being treated for a nonlife-threatening injury, Francisco said. Authorities have not yet interviewed the deputy, and do not know why he first approached the man.

“We’re still in the very preliminary stages of the investigation,” Francisco said.

The death will be investigated by the Los Angeles County district attorney, and the sheriff ’s homicide and internal affairs bureaus.

Irfan Khan Los Angeles Times INVESTIGATORS WALK in Walnut Park after a deputy-involved shooting. A man was shot dead by a deputy after he wounded another law enforcement official during an earlier confrontation, authorities say.