Thursday, September 1, 2011

LAPD revises details of Aug. 25 shooting of officer

SWAT officers

Los Angeles police officials have corrected several details of how a police officer was shot last week.

In the chaotic hours after the Aug. 25 shooting at Western Avenue and 70th Street, police officials reported that the officer had been struck in the hand and twice in the chest, but said his life had likely been saved by the protective vest he was wearing. They also said that a suspect had been shot and taken into custody, and that the officers had been driving a black-and-white police vehicle.

The officer, as first reported, was shot in the hand, but police officials now say he was not wearing a protective vest. He did suffer a bruise or similar injury on his ribcage, which he told LAPD Cmdr. Andy Smith he believes was caused by a bullet, Smith said.

It is unclear whether the injury was, in fact, caused by a bullet and, if so, whether the bullet perhaps was deflected or somehow passed through the car before striking the officer.

The alleged shots to the chest and the vest persisted as accepted facts so much after the shooting that the doctor who oversaw the officer’s treatment told reporters the day after the incident that the vest had protected the officer from more serious injury.

The Times is not releasing the name of the wounded officer at the request of LAPD officials, who have said the safety of the officer and his family could be jeopardized.

The officer, a seven-year veteran of the LAPD, was released from the hospital after undergoing hand surgery and is expected to make a full recovery.

An accurate account of the shooting, police say, is this:

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