Los Angeles

Video Shows Gang Member Shooting Officer During Traffic Stop in North Hills

Police video shows a confrontation that left a suspect dead and an officer wounded in North Hills this summer.

What to Know

  • Video released on the LAPD's YouTube channel fill in more details about the July 27 incident in North Hills.
  • Police pulled over Richard "Biz" Mendoza, 32, of Los Angeles, about 10:15 p.m. on July 27, 2018.
  • Mendoza shot the officer as he got out of the car. The gunman was shot by the officer's partner.

A documented gang member on parole can be seen shooting an officer before the gunman is fatally shot by the officer's partner during a traffic stop this summer in North Hills, video released by the Los Angeles Police Department Monday shows.

Video released on the LAPD's YouTube channel fill in more details about the July 27 incident that left an officer with a wound to her left leg and a 32-year-old convict dead in the 9400 block of Noble Avenue.

Police pulled over Richard "Biz" Mendoza, 32, of Los Angeles, about 10:15 that night for a so-called investigative stop after one of the officers recognized the driver from a previous encounter, officials said.

Mendoza shot the officer as he got out of the car. He was shot by the officer's partner who stood outside the passenger side of the car.

In the video, the officer who was hit could be heard screaming in pain on the ground while her partner radios in for an ambulance. The wounded officer tells her partner she got hit in her left leg.

"You're going to be OK," he tells her. "I got you. I got you."

"It burns," the injured officer says, before saying, "Just get him," referring to Mendoza.

The uninjured officer steps over to where Mendoza lay under the open door of the car and cuffs the bleeding suspect. Sirens could be heard before lights from a police car could be seen rounding the corner at the end of the street.

Mendoza was taken to a hospital where he was treated for gunshot wounds to the head and torso. He later died.

The officer, a nine-year veteran, was treated for a gunshot wound to the leg.

"She is in great spirits and is eager to return to work once she is healed,"said LAPD Capt. Patricia Sandoval, a department spokeswoman.

Mendoza had prior convictions for possession of a firearm by a felon and narcotics sales, the LAPD said.

In the police video he can be heard telling officers he had nine months left of his probation.

Copyright CNS - City News Service
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