A Los Angeles police officer was in serious condition Friday night after being hit by a car while on foot in the Historic South-Central neighborhood of South L.A., officials said.
The crash occurred around 7:30 p.m. in the area of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Trinity Street while the officer was conducting traffic control, according to Mike Lopez, a media relations officer with the L.A. Police Department, and the department’s Twitter account.
Lopez had earlier said the officer was hospitalized with injuries that were not life-threatening. But around 9 p.m., he said the officer was “in bad shape” and his condition was updated to critical.
Shortly before 11 p.m., LAPD tweeted that the officer was in serious condition and “surrounded by experts and the love of his colleagues and family.”
The driver involved remained at the scene and was cooperating with investigators. Lopez said the person was not suspected of a crime and the incident appeared to be an accident.
Paramedics also transported a second person to the hospital, but there was no information available on that patient or their injuries, said Margaret Stewart, a public information officer for the L.A. Fire Department.
Authorities have not provided any further details on the crash or what led up to it.
Aerial footage of the scene showed a large scene, stretching blocks, with multiple damaged vehicles. It was unclear how, or if, they were related.
Friday’s incident comes just one day after an L.A. County sheriff’s Deputy Thomas Albanese was fatally struck by a car as he drove through an intersection while trying to initiate a traffic stop in Lakewood.
