The Region - News from Dec. 11, 1985

A suspected cocaine dealer, shot in the left buttock by a Los Angeles Police Department narcotics officer who mistook a chrome flashlight in the suspect’s hand for a handgun, was reported in satisfactory condition in the jail ward of County-USC Medical Center. Lt. Charles Higbie said Officer Matthew V. Mahoney, 26, was chasing Michael Hardy, 31, after seeing him make a sale to a customer on West 47th Street near Hoover Avenue, when Hardy, blocked by a fence, turned toward Mahoney with the flashlight in his hand. “The officer, believing the object to be a handgun, fired one round from his service revolver, wounding him in the left buttock,” Higbie said. A blackjack and plastic bags containing seven “rocks” of cocaine were allegedly found on Hardy, who was booked on suspicion of possessing an illicit drug for sale.