Allegedly Attacked Officer With Car : Police Kill Teen, Shoot 2 in Separate Incidents

A teen-age driver who allegedly attacked arresting officers with his car was shot to death, and two suspected robbers were wounded by police gunfire in a trio of separate incidents over the weekend, authorities said.

Police said the teen-ager was shot after an 11-minute chase that began at 12:24 a.m. Sunday, when a Seal Beach officer spotted a car speeding on Pacific Coast Highway.

After a 90-m.p.h. chase through Long Beach, Westminster, Los Alamitos and Cerritos, the Seal Beach officer, joined by Los Alamitos units, cut the driver off in the 11100 block of Bingham Street in Cerritos, which ends in a cul-de-sac.

When the cornered driver rammed his car into a Los Alamitos patrol car, slightly injuring an officer inside, the Seal Beach officer opened fire, authorities said. The teen-ager, identified as Robert Laine Reich, 18, of Huntington Beach died at the scene.

About an hour earlier, California Highway Patrol Sgt. Bruce Wiedmer had just ended his shift and was en route home on his motorcycle when a woman flagged him down at a corner in East Central Los Angeles and said she had just been robbed at gunpoint.

She identified a man standing nearby as the robber. Wiedmer chased the man, then opened fire when the suspect turned and pointed a handgun, a CHP spokesman said. The suspect, who was not identified, was in critical condition after surgery at County-USC Medical Center.

At about the same time, a police spokesman said, off-duty Los Angeles Police Officer Anthony Prieto was in the parking lot of a convenience store in Valinda when several young men pulled him from his car and tried to rob him.

Another off-duty officer, Augustine Caballera, first fired a warning shot and then shot one of the attackers in the leg when he advanced. The suspect, identified as Timothy Antwine, 25, of West Covina was in satisfactory condition at County-USC Medical Center. Antwine and Craig Scott, 25, were booked on suspicion of robbery.

Officer Prieto was released after hospital treatment for a minor eye wound.