LOS ANGELES (CNS) - Police today sought the public's help in finding two teenage boys involved in the shooting of an off-duty Los Angeles police officer in front of his home.
Officer Anthony Razo, 49, who is assigned to the Hollenbeck Station, was initially listed in critical condition, but was upgraded to serious at County-USC Medical Center Saturday afternoon, said Sgt. Diane Hecht of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.
Razo was leaving his home in the 800 block of North Gage Avenue at 4:45 a.m. Saturday when he was confronted by a teenager with a revolver, she said. The two struggled over the gun and Razo drew his personal weapon, which fell to the ground, Hecht said. A second teen picked up the gun and shot him in the right shoulder, she said.
The 14-year LAPD veteran was 'leaving his home to do nothing more than to go play a round of golf,'' when he was confronted by the two teens, sheriff's Lt. Gil Carrillo told ABC7. He told the Los Angeles Times that Razo's wife and three children were home at the time of the attack. In addition to the gunshot wound, Razo suffered several broken ribs, according police Chief Bill Bratton.
'It is very fortunate that the shot that struck him didn't take his life,'' Bratton said to The Times. The boys fled in an early 1990s green Toyota Camry that may have beendriven by a third person, Hecht said. It was unclear how the encounter started, and the suspects were described only as 'Hispanic males in their teens with shaved heads,'' Hecht said.
No arrests have been made, and the motive for the shooting was unknown,the sergeant said. Razo had worked with Hollenbeck's gang detail, The Times reported. Los Angeles police spokeswoman Norma Eisenman said she did not believe that Razowas currently in the gang unit. Police have not said the shooting was gang-related, but Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, in a news conference Saturday, said: 'Now you understand why gun and gang violence should be our priority.''
The shooting was similar to the fatal Aug. 2 shooting of sheriff's Deputy Juan Abel Escalante, who was killed outside his Cypress Park home in a predawn attack as he prepared to go to work at the Men's Central Jail. Two suspected gang members were charged in the case, but no motive has been disclosed.
The Los Angeles Police Protective League, which represents the officers, noted that LAPD officers were shot at 14 times last year. 'These are not exchanges of gunfire between criminals and officers -- these are cold-blooded attempts to murder unsuspecting officers without any warning,'' LAPPL President Paul M. Weber said in a statement.
'One of these shootings resulted in the death of Officer Randal David Simmons, a 27-year veteran of the LAPD, who was murdered in the line of duty on Thursday, Feb. 7, 2008,'' he said. 'In addition to the shootings, LAPD officers were also the victims of assaults with a deadly weapon 168 times and the victims of a battery (physical altercation) 358 times in 2008, bringing the total number of vicious attacks on LAPD officers to 540.''
He said police officers 'deserve all the tools and all the support the community can possibly provide.'' 'We have a message for those who attack police officers -- no criminal is going to be able to deter us from doing our work to make Los Angeles thesafest big city in America,'' he said. Police asked anyone with more information about the shooting to call sheriff's detectives at (323) 890-5500.
