Local News in Brief : Film Crew Catches Hit-Run Suspect

After a motorist struck an off-duty police officer who was guarding a Tarzana filming site for the television series “Simon and Simon,” TV crewmen took chase Monday morning.

The suspect, with four TV crew members right behind him, was captured at a police station in Reseda.

“They came crashing through the front door of the station with this donnybrook going,” said Detective Don Bellante. “Officers jumped over the desk and grabbed them all until they could sort out who was who and what was going on.”

Samir Shamoun, 29, a painter from Encino, was arrested on suspicion of felony hit-and-run driving. He was held at the Van Nuys jail in lieu of $1,000 bail.

The incident began when the driver of a van pulled into a parking lot on Ventura Boulevard, Bellante said. He said that Richard Neuenschwander, 53, an off-duty Los Angeles Police Department officer, ordered the driver to back up, but the van lurched forward. Neuenschwander tripped over a camera tripod as he tried to get out of the way, Bellante said, and the van ran over the policeman’s left leg and arm. Neuenschwander was listed in serious but stable condition at Northridge Medical Center.