Whittier police officer shot but expected to recover

FOX11-LA

WHITTIER — A Whittier Police Department officer and the suspect accused of shooting him were being treated for non-life threatening injuries Tuesday.

The shooting occurred in the 7300 block of Pickering Avenue, near Penn Street, at 8:40 p.m. Monday as Whittier Police Department officers were conducting surveillance on a suspect, identified as Edgar Gonzalez, 25, the shooter in a July 30 murder in Santa Fe Springs, and stopped a vehicle Gonzalez was driving, said Lt. Hugo Reynaga of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.

Officers requested that the suspect get out of the vehicle several times and at some point Gonzalez got out and ran away with officers in pursuit.

Police caught up to Gonzalez between two apartment complexes, where officers opened fire on him. He continued running south on Pickering, where Gonzalez tossed away a semiautomatic handgun and continued running west on Mar Vista Avenue from Pickering, police said.

A K-9 unit was brought in and officers used a less lethal 40mm baton round on Gonzalez before he was taken into custody, Reynaga said.

The officer and Gonzalez were taken to Los Angeles General Medical Center. The officer sustained gunshot wounds to his lower extremities and the suspect suffered a gunshot wound to the hand,

The officer, whose name was not released, is "in good spirits," Whittier Mayor Joe Vinatieri wrote on his Facebook page, praising the "awesome response" from personnel from the Pico Rivera, Norwalk and Temple sheriff's stations and El Monte and Irwindale police departments.

Sheriff's homicide detectives are assisting the Whittier Police Department in the investigation of the shooting.

Anyone with information about this shooting was asked to call the Sheriff's Homicide Bureau at 323-890-5500. Anonymous callers may call Crime Stoppers at 800-222-8477 or send tips to lacrimestoppers.org

The hospital was formerly known as LAC+USC Medical Center.