A sheriff's deputy fired eight shots early Sunday morning at a man he believed had just robbed a West Hollywood liquor store, only to learn that his target was the clerk who had been held up, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.

The clerk was not hit, and the suspects, described as a black man armed with a handgun and a black woman, escaped.

The shooting happened about 1:15 a.m. near Havenhurst Drive and Santa Monica Boulevard, said sheriff’s Deputy Lillian Peck. “Deputies responded to a robbery call of a liquor store in the 8200 block of Santa Monica Boulevard,” she said. “The call indicated the suspects were armed with a handgun.”

Peck said one deputy fired after seeing a man who matched the description of one suspect run from the area of the liquor store, holding what he believed to be a gun. “The man was detained by deputies and was determined not to be a suspect,” Peck said.

Windows at a store across the street from the robbery site were shattered by the gunfire.

--Martha Groves