Shooting at LAPD station in Mid-City deemed an isolated incident

The shooting in a Mid-City Los Angeles police station lobby Monday that left one officer injured and a gunman in critical condition was an isolated incident, a department spokesman said Tuesday.

The shooting was reported about 8:30 p.m. at the LAPD Wilshire Division on Venice Boulevard near South La Brea Avenue.

Four rounds hit the Los Angeles police officer in his ballistic vest and three hit his extremities, authorities said. He is expected to survive.

LAPD Chief Charlie Beck said at a news conference after the shooting that the officer was “very, very lucky,” and by returning fire, saved his partner’s life.

“He is in great spirits,” Beck told reporters, describing the officer as a “remarkable young man.”

The wounded officer was being treated at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, where officers descended on the emergency room in a show of support. The name of the officer was not released.

The station is often quiet at night, but a community meeting with about 35 people was underway in a room near the lobby when the gunman began firing, police said.

The suspect, who was armed with a handgun, fired multiple rounds at the officer. One round went through his left arm, Cmdr. Dennis Kato said.

The suspect was wounded and in critical condition after the two officers returned the gunfire.

Kato said investigators were trying to piece together details on the suspect and how he traveled to the station.

“We don’t know who he is, where he came from,” Kato said. “We don’t even have a name on him at this point.”

Daphne Brogdon, a member of the Olympic Park Neighborhood Council, was at the group’s monthly meeting inside the station’s West Bureau community room when the gunfire broke out.

After the shots began, Brogdon jumped up, ran to a lectern and dove beneath it, trying to shield herself.

“I hid, and everyone else just hit the ground,” she said. “Everyone was trying to be really quiet, and the shots continued.”

One of her colleagues on the neighborhood council, a mother like herself, was next to her.

“We were just holding hands, looking at each other saying, ‘Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Oh, my God.’”

Brogdon said she was reluctant to look up when she heard people entering the room but saw that it was police officers checking on them. She was terrified it was the shooter entering.

When she did look up, she saw that a bullet had come into the room, not far from her.