A suspect was in custody Saturday night after a Los Angeles police officer was injured in an attack at the department’s Harbor Station in San Pedro, California, officials said.
The officer was hit in the head and is expected to survive, the department said.
“The officer involved in this incident was transported to a local hospital and is receiving medical attention for non-life-threatening injuries,” the police department wrote on Twitter. “The suspect involved in this incident is in custody. This is preliminary information, as this is an active and ongoing investigation.”
Los Angeles Police Chief Michel Moore wrote that the officer suffered “bumps and bruises” but was not shot, adding that he spoke to the officer, who was not named.
That’s when it “escalated” into “some type of altercation,” Moore said. “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 that the watch commander saw the suspect hitting the officer before trying to grab his gun. The watch commander then fired his weapon at the suspect, who fled and drove away.
“The officer is in stable condition and we’re closely monitoring the situation,” he wrote.
The incidents came about two weeks after two Los Angeles County Sheriff’s deputies were shot in an ambush attack in Compton. A suspect in the case has yet to be apprehended.
Meanwhile, the attacks on officers come in the midst of a monthslong effort to “defund the police” in the wake of George Floyd’s death in Minneapolis. The man’s death triggered a resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement, Antifa-related incidents, and a wave of anti-police animus.
