RL NEWS: May 5, 2013

Officer Killed In Harbor City Hit-And-Run

HARBOR CITY — A Los Angeles Police Department officer, 32-year-old Roberto Sanchez, was killed and another was seriously injured, after a hit-and-run May 3, in Harbor City.

Officers were making a U-turn to follow a speeding vehicle and were broadsided by an SUV at about 4 a.m. near Senator Avenue and Anaheim Street, officials said.

Sanchez was a 6-year veteran assigned to the Harbor Area. Sanchez, of Santa Ana resident, was had recently wed.

His patrol partner, Richard Medina, was in critical condition but was released from the hospital May 4.

It is believed that the patrol car at the time was following a white Camaro traveling east on Anaheim Street. The Camaro and the patrol car both made U-turns. A Chevy Tahoe, also heading east, plowed into the driver’s side of the patrol car as the officers were completing their turn, official said.

The department did not yet know whether the patrol car’s sirens or lights were on at the time, or whether drugs or alcohol may have been a factor in the crash, officials said.

The SUV driver fled the scene on foot. The patrol car radio was inoperable. The surviving officer had to use his cell phone to call for help, officials said.

Police located and detained a “person of interest” about a mile from the accident, but no arrests had made, officials said.

Investigators will have to look at video footage from the patrol car to figure out what happened. That video appeared to show the police lights of the patrol car had been turned on.

Council Members Propose Blue Line Extension to Pedro

LOS ANGELES — On April 30, Council members Joe Buscaino and Tom LaBonge presented a motion to request that the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation report on the feasibility of implementing a light rail system that will connect riders in Wilmington and San Pedro to the Blue Line.

The Blue Line is a 22-mile light rail line running north to south between Long Beach and downtown Los Angeles, through south Los Angeles, Watts and Compton, in Los Angeles County. It is one of the six lines in the Metro Rail System, and is the oldest and second busiest line in the system.