FILE - In this Aug. 26, 2020, file photo, Los Angeles Police Chief Michel Moore peaks outside the LAPD headquarters, with members of the "Safe LA Task Force", announcing arrests for arson, looting, assault and vandalism, among other crimes, that occurred during protests against police brutality in the Los Angeles region. A Los Angeles Police Department officer suffered minor injuries during an altercation in a police station with a man who wrestled away the officer's gun, fired it and then ran when another officer shot at him. The suspect, who was not wounded, got into a vehicle and drove off. Officers stopped him a short distance away and he was arrested. The injured officer was hospitalized with what Chief Moore described as bumps and bruises. "He is resting and will be ok," Moore tweeted early Sunday, Sept. 27.
Image Credit: AP Photo/Stefanie Dazio, File
September 27, 2020 - 12:36 PM
LOS ANGELES - A Los Angeles Police Department officer suffered minor injuries during an altercation in a police station with a man who wrestled away the officer’s gun, fired it and then ran when another officer shot at him, authorities said.
The suspect, who was not wounded, got into a vehicle and drove off, police said. Officers stopped him a short distance away and he was arrested.
The injured officer was hospitalized with what Chief Michel Moore described as bumps and bruises.
“He is resting and will be ok,” Moore tweeted early Sunday.
The incident inside the Harbor Station in the Sen Pedro area of Los Angeles unfolded late Saturday night. The suspect walked into the lobby and an officer came out to talk with him.
“It escalated into some type of altercation,” Moore said at a news conference outside the hospital where the officer was being treated. “During that altercation, it appears at this very early stage that the officer’s weapon was taken from him and rounds were fired by the individual at the officer.”
Assistant Police Chief Horace Frank told the Los Angeles Times the watch commander at the station heard noises and saw that the suspect had taken the officer’s gun and was hitting him. The watch commander then fired at the suspect, Frank said.
The suspect was not identified. Moore said he was about 29 years old.
The incident came two weeks after two Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department deputies were ambushed as they sat in their police vehicle in Compton, about 15 miles (24 kilometres) north of San Pedro. The officers suffered serious gunshot wounds but both have been released from the hospital. The gunman has not been arrested.
News from © The Associated Press, 2020