Truck’s possible brake failure may have led to fatal LAPD crash

Authorities are looking into whether the brakes failed on a large truck in Beverly Hills on Friday before a collision with a Los Angeles police squad car, killing one officer and seriously injuring another.

The officers were crossing through Beverly Hills en route to an “unknown trouble call” when the crash occurred about 8 a.m. near Loma Vista Drive and Robert Lane, officials said.

Speaking to reporters outside Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, LAPD Chief Charlie Beck declined to provide details about the circumstances leading up to the crash, citing the ongoing investigation, but called it a “catastrophic” collision with a trash hauler.

The officer who was killed worked in the Los Angeles Police Department’s Hollywood Division and was “extremely well respected,” Beck said.

The second officer, just three months out of the academy, and the driver of the truck were expected to survive their injuries, officials said.

“On behalf of the city, we grieve a hero this morning, an officer who gave his life in the service of the people of Los Angeles,” Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti told reporters.

The killed officer was training the female probationary officer when the crash occurred. The female officer and the driver of the truck were both taken to Cedars-Sinai in critical condition, LAPD Cmdr. Andrew Smith said.

The names of the officers had not been released, pending notification of family, but sources said the officer killed was a 16-year department veteran and father of two.

Initial reports indicated the injured officer suffered a broken arm, several contusions and other possible injuries, the sources said.

Garcetti said flags across the city would be lowered to half mast. By mid-morning they had already been lowered outside the LAPD’s downtown headquarters.

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