A man was gunned down in the middle of Hollywood clubland last night as an off-duty cop who happened to be in the area witnessed the murder, police said today.

The Los Angeles Police Department officer who saw the attack followed the suspect until arriving patrol officers could apprehend him, a detective told us.

The suspected shooter and an alleged accomplice were arrested, the detective said.

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The shooting in the 1600 block of Cahuenga Boulevard happened at 11:55 p.m. Sunday, according to an LAPD statement.

The attack was brazen, even on a Sunday night. The area—the Cahuenga Corridor—could be considered the epicenter of Hollywood clubland, and it was crawling with people last night, police said. “It's always crowded in Hollywood,” the detective told us.

The department's statement described what went down:

“The off duty officer and citizens observed a suspect smashing windows on a car,” the statement reads.

The shooter “then confronted the victim demanding the victim’s money” before squeezing off several rounds, the department said.

The cop and “concerned citizens” followed the shooting suspect and the alleged accomplice to nearby Wilcox Avenue (home of the LAPD's Hollywood Division station, just a few blocks away), where they were were collared by arriving patrol officers, police said.

The detective said it was too early to disclose what investigators believe the duo was up to that evening—if the pair was simply doing allege car burglaries.

“We're still looking into that aspect of the investigation,” the officer said. “We're still trying to investigate what the motive in this is.”

The names of the suspects were being withheld.

KTLA News reported that the attack might have involved a drug deal gone bad.

The victim, described as a man in his late 50s, remained unidentified. A coroner's official told us that authorities had yet to track down any next of kin.

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