Gunmen have shot at L.A. peace officers at least four times over the last eight days – a pace that has a Los Angeles County union official saying it appears to be "open season" on law enforcement, reports the L.A. Times.
The latest shooting broke out Tuesday night in San Pedro, when a man allegedly shot at two LAPD officers. Though no officers were hit, it was a different case just hours earlier in Lynwood, when a sheriff's detective was shot in the shoulder.
"It's a dangerous job, and we work in a particularly dangerous area," said Jeffrey Steck, president of the county deputies' union. "It seems there's a little bit of an open season on law enforcement lately — attacks that are unprovoked."
Among those apparently unprovoked shootings was one in San Bernardino on Friday. According to police, Officer Gabriel Garcia and his rookie partner approached a group of a half-dozen people in a residential neighborhood when one of the men in the group, identified as Alex Alvarado, 38, turned and shot Garcia multiple times with an assault weapon-type rifle. Alvarado was killed in a subsequent firefight; Garcia remains in critical condition.
Garcia was the most seriously injured in the recent spate of shootings, but an LAPD officer engaged in a gun battle Aug. 18 – the first in the recent string of incidents – was also seriously wounded. The injury may be career-ending to the officer, officials said.
Three days earlier, on Aug. 15, a sheriff's deputy was severely beaten by a man while investigating a domestic violence incident at Lakewood Center mall. The man was unarmed and was taken into custody and the deputy is recovering in the hospital.
