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LAPD Shaken by 5 Officer Deaths

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.

May 15, 2014

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.”

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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.