Paparazzo killed on freeway after photographing Justin Bieber's car

US-USA-BIEBER-PAPARAZZI:Paparazzo killed on freeway after photographing Justin Bieber's car

(Reuters) - A celebrity photographer was struck and killed by a car on a Los Angeles highway on Tuesday after snapping photographs of a Ferrari registered to pop star Justin Bieber, police said.

Bieber wasn't in his car, which had been pulled over by California Highway Patrol officers on Interstate 405 for suspected speeding, Los Angeles Police Department Officer Cleon Joseph said on Wednesday.

Highway patrol officers saw the 29-year-old paparazzo taking photographs of the scene on Tuesday evening and ordered him to return to his car for safety reasons, Joseph said.

The photographer, whose name was not released, refused to leave. After officers repeated their order, he was struck while trying to cross four lanes of traffic, Joseph said.

Charges were unlikely to be filed against the driver who struck the photographer, the officer said.

Bieber was stopped by police for speeding on a Los Angeles freeway last July. He told officers he was being hounded by paparazzi at the time.

Prosecutors charged a celebrity photographer under a California law that criminalizes dangerous driving when taking photos commercially, but a judge later dismissed those counts.

(Reporting by Colleen Jenkins; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)

---