South Los Angeles saw a suspect shot after a car chase that also landed a police officer in a bullet proof vest in pain after taking a bullet.
The incident on Tuesday started in the early afternoon and it’s not just a story about crime in the streets. Read on for more details.
The Incident
Per the LA Times, LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell explained that the incident started when cops spotted “a man with a gun in a pickup truck” and tried to stop him.
Things escalated quickly in the vicinity of “Washington and Alameda boulevards,” when the driver took off at speed.
Then things broke loose. My News LA reported that the suspect blew through stop signs. He drove on the wrong side of the road.
The pursuit ran 2.5 miles through South LA. Maybe it felt longer for everyone involved.
A Gunfire Exchange
The truck finally crashed near Garnet and Marietta streets in Boyle Heights, right against the freeway junction. The suspect lost control and slammed into a fence. That ‘s where any sort of calm ended and the gunfire began.
CBS News reported on how a police SUV moved in. The suspect jumped out of the crashed cab. He had a silver semi-automatic handgun.
And, he fired while running backward. Not toward the officers. Backward.
That made it worse somehow. Why? Because it might suggest in a court that there was an intent to take down one of the officers.
The Bullet Proof Vest
One round hit an officer in the chest. Fortunately, the vest caught it. Multiple officers returned fire. They hit the suspect several times. No bystanders got caught in the crossfire. That part was lucky.
Chief Jim McDonnell praised the Kevlar. The officer is “expected to be OK,” according to mainstream outlets. But anyone who has worn a badge knows OK is a relative word.
Footage showed the officer pointing to his chest as he talked to paramedics. He walked to the ambulance. However, that doesn’t mean he is fine.
Maybe he has cracked ribs now. Perhaps a bruised sternum. Possibly a lung contusion. The vest kept him out of surgery. But a bullet hitting soft armor feels like a baseball bat swung by a pro athlete.
Meanwhile, the suspect was reported to be in surgery. The officer is home with pain that will not fade fast. Two different kinds of not being OK.
Reactions by Readers
When ABC7la shared the news on Instagram, some folks seemed sarcastic. One of them wrote, “Breaking news! Something worked correctly,” and a few other similar comments arrived.
The thing is, it’s no fun being hit by a bullet while wearing a vest. Even when a vest does its job perfectly, a person can expect a range of injuries depending on the caliber of the weapon and the type of armor worn.
Probably the best an officer can hope for is severe bruising and welts.
Another reader wrote:
Glad it saved the officer’s life but don’t get it twisted, ‘bullet proof’ doesn’t mean all is good. The vest might prevent penetration but it doesn’t offset the kinetic force experienced by the person wearing the vest. Bare minimum this has to at least result in some intense bruising.
How Accurate Is That?
Is he correct in his observations? Well, per Premier Body Armor, when a bullet hits you, “the energy still transfers to your body as blunt force trauma, which can cause injuries like bruising or broken ribs.”
Does it hurt? Well, by all accounts it does. A lot.
What are your thoughts on the high-speed chase and the shootout in Boyle Heights? Did you know that a bullet proof vest might stop a bullet but still hurt like crazy?
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