Driver Pleads Not Guilty to Killing LAPD Officer in Hit-And-Run

The 20-year-old man charged with murder in connection with a hit-and-run crash that killed a Los Angeles police officer and injured another pleaded not guilty in his first court appearance Wednesday, reports the L.A. Times .

Mynor Enrique Varela, 20, of Harbor City, entered the Long Beach courtroom in a wheelchair, apparently suffering from a leg injury his attorney said he sustained several months ago.

Prosecutors charged Varela earlier Wednesday with murder, vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence, and leaving the scene of an accident. He faces two additional felony counts of assault on a peace officer, and a special circumstance of second-degree murder of a peace officer.

Varela was arrested Tuesday after detectives determined he was driving the Chevrolet Tahoe that broadsided an LAPD patrol car driven by Officer Roberto Sanchez, 32.

Varela was ordered back in court June 11.