It's hard not to notice the LAPD in mourning. Blue ribbons are tied to trees outside police stations and onto antennas on black-and-white patrol cars.
"We all do think about it,” Sgt. Rose Mejia of LAPD’s Hollywood Station told KPCC. “But it’s kind of one of those things, you can't really obsess about it.”
The recent toll has been high:
- A funeral Wednesday at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels remembers officer Robert Sanchez, the third LAPD officer to die in a car crash this year. Authorities allege Sanchez was killed May 3 when an SUV crashed into his patrol car in Harbor City; police say the SUV was driven by someone trying to help a friend the police were following.
- That same day, 33-year veteran officer George Nagata suffered a heart attack and died while at work.
- On April 5, a driver in Sun Valley crashed into LAPD motorcycle officer Chris Cortijo, killing him, while he was stopped at a red light.
- In March, officer Nicholas Lee died after a heavy-hauling dump truck lost control on a steep street in Beverly Hills and barreled into his police car.
- It’s the same street where off-duty LAPD detective Ernest Allen lost his life Friday in a similar fatal crash.
That's five LAPD officers lost in two months.
