One officer was killed and a second injured in a shootout with a gang member who was wounded in a Monday morning altercation in Whittier, authorities said.
Three Whittier Police Department officers were responding to the scene of a traffic collision about 8 a.m. when a 26-year-old, recently paroled man driving a stolen car opened fire with a semiautomatic pistol, said Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department Lt. John Corina.
Two
officers were hit by gunfire and taken to UC Irvine Medical Center,
where one officer was pronounced dead, Corina said. The other wounded
officer is in stable condition while the suspect was taken to
County-USC Medical Center and is in unknown condition.
Police officers arrived in three separate cars and approached the man, who was seated in the silver car, Corina said. He got out and as officers moved to pat him down, he pulled a gun from his waistband and began shooting at close range.
“He started firing at the officers and they returned fire," Corina said. “We are still looking into that, why he just opened fire.”
Officers believed they were responding to a routine traffic call and did not know the vehicle was stolen when they approached.
"It seems like a simple traffic accident and next thing they know they're in a gunfight,” Corina said, adding that “you never know when you respond to a call, what you are going to run into.”
Corina said both officers were wearing bulletproof vests and were shot in the body.
Police have not identified the shooter pending the ongoing investigation, but described him as a Los Angeles gang member who had been released on parole within the last two weeks and had many tattoos, including on his neck and face. He was driving a stolen car from East L.A.
It was the first fatal shooting of a police officer in Whittier in more than 37 years, said Mayor Joe Vinatieris.
“This is a very sad day for our officers, the families involved, the Whittier Police Department and our community,” Vinatieris said. “But we’re pulling together. And we're going to take care of these families and we're going to take care of this police department.”
Investigators are still trying to piece together what motive the shooter had to fire on officers and have not interviewed him yet because he is being treated at the hospital, Corina said.
Emergency responders at the scene performed CPR on a male officer while wheeling him into an ambulance, said Brian Feinzimer, a freelance photojournalist who was at the scene as authorities responded Monday morning.
Also visible in the eastbound lanes of Mar Vista Street east of Colima Road was a Whittier police SUV with shattered windows and a suspect who was handcuffed facedown on the pavement, Feinzimer said.
The shootout unfolded in a quiet and lushly landscaped neighborhood of suburban tract homes, churches, sports parks and rolling hills.
Near the scene, a woman and young girl dressed in plaid shirts stopped in their SUV and hugged a Whittier police officer at the yellow police tape near the Friendly Hills Country club.
Monday afternoon, a procession of police vehicles traveled from the hospital, accompanying the slain officer’s body to the Orange County coroner’s office. Their cars were greeted by a line of law enforcement officers who saluted as the procession drove by.
The Whittier Police Department has about 128 sworn officers who police the cities of Whittier and Santa Fe Springs in southeastern Los Angeles County.
City officials invited the public to attend a prayer vigil 6 p.m. Monday at the Whittier Police Department.
Monday’s shooting marks the third time a police officer in Whittier was slain in the line of duty in the department’s 100-year history. According to the Officer Down website, Whittier officers were killed in 1977 and 1979, according to the city.
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