LOS ANGELES (AP) — A Los Angeles police officer who was shot Thursday during an exchange of gunfire with a homicide suspect is expected to make a full recovery, the police chief said.
The SWAT officer was shot in the hip after a brief pursuit in El Segundo.
The suspect was one of four people wanted in connection with a gang-related killing in late March, Chief Charlie Beck said.
The suspect, whose name was not immediately released, led the officers on a brief pursuit before he left his car with a handgun and opened fire, the chief said.
Several Los Angeles and Hawthorne police officers returned fire, wounding the man, Beck said.
The suspect was taken to a hospital in serious condition and will be arrested in connection with the March killing and for investigation of attempted murder of a police officer, the chief said.
The name of the wounded officer was not immediately released. Beck visited him at the hospital and said he was stable and his wife, a fellow LAPD officer, was at his bedside.
“We anticipate a full recovery at this point,” Beck said.
The Los Angeles Police Protective League, the union that represents police officers, said the shooting is a “somber reminder that police work is inherently dangerous and deadly.”
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