Video obtained by KTLA appears to show the moment a Los Angeles Police Department cruiser rushing to the end of a stolen vehicle pursuit in Sun Valley strikes a fellow officer running across the street.
As the dash-cam video unfolds, it sounds like someone inside the police cruiser yells “heads up” just before the collision.
The officer running across the street is thrown forward into the air from the impact, lands on the wet pavement and slides several feet.
“I just hear helicopters then sirens,” Hector Morales said.
Morales, who witnessed the chaos, but did not see the officer go down said LAPD officers at the scene confirmed that it was one of their own vehicles that hit a fellow officer.
“I didn’t see that, but I hear that one of the fellow cops hit him,” Morales said.
The incident occurred on Oct. 13 just after 5 p.m. on Covello Street and Hollywood Way as police were in pursuit of a stolen black pickup truck.
Almost immediately after the driver of the truck crashed into a fire hydrant and a car in a driveway, another call on the radio came out for an officer down.
On Tuesday, officials with LAPD would not confirm that the officer was hit by one of their own cruisers but said they “were in pursuit of a stolen vehicle when an officer was struck at the termination, sustaining non-life-threatening injuries. We are thankful our officer was not seriously injured in this accident.”
Within minutes of the crash, video shows the officer on his feet. Not long after, paramedics with the Los Angeles Fire Department took the officer to the hospital.
Authorities with the police department did confirm that they have started an extensive investigation into the pursuit.