LONG BEACH - A rookie police officer was shot four times in the throat and his training partner was shot in the head in a Friday afternoon gunbattle following a traffic stop on a bustling downtown street.
An army of Long Beach police officers descended on the area at Long Beach Boulevard between Sixth Street and Broadway looking for a suspect in an SUV after the shots were fired at about 1:20 p.m.
The search continued late Friday, with officers locating the suspect's vehicle outside an apartment complex in the 300 block of Elm Avenue at about 8:30 p.m., said Lt. David Cannan.
SWAT officers were preparing to enter the complex and were evacuating residents in and around the building at 9:45 p.m., he said.
Just before midnight, SWAT was still staging and waiting for the command to enter the building, Cannan said.
Officer Jason Evans said Saturday morning that, as of 7:45 a.m., the wounded officers were still stable and the suspect was still outstanding.
More than 100 officers searched a grid from Seventh Street to Ocean Boulevard and from Long Beach Boulevard to Atlantic Avenue before the vehicle was found.
The shooting erupted on the busy Friday afternoon before Christmas
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as many residents were shopping at a nearby Wal-Mart and the Farmer's Market was buzzing with activity.
Within minutes of the shooting, police were cordoning off stretches of Long Beach Boulevard while rumors floated amid a milling crowd.
An Amber alert was issued at 4 p.m. for a white 1998 Nissan Pathfinder with the license plate 4AVN056 believed to be involved in the shooting.
Police described the suspect as a male Hispanic or Filipino in his late 20s or early 30s, 5
foot 7 inches to 5 foot 9 inches tall and 210 to 230 pounds. He was also described as having short hair or a shaved head, and tattoos on both arms.
"This is a tough day for Long Beach," Mayor Bob Foster said at an evening news conference.
The injured officers, whose names police asked be withheld until they could notify all of the relatives, some of whom live out-of-state, were taken by fellow officers to Long Beach Memorial Medical Center. They were listed in critical condition. As the afternoon wore on, however, family and friends received some good news.
The rookie, who graduated three weeks ago from the Police Academy, survived a two-hour-plus surgery and doctors upgraded his prognosis, giving him a 60 to 70 percent chance of survival, police said.
The young officer crashed twice while in surgery and flat-lined for a full minute but was brought back from the brink of death by the hospital's emergency team, police said.
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