3 L.A. Officers Die as Squad Cars Collide

Three Los Angeles police officers speeding to assist detectives in an arrest on Skid Row were killed early Monday when their two cruisers collided, sending one careening into a metal light pole and the other into a deep trench at a construction site.

Authorities called it the worst accident in Los Angeles Police Department history. Never before have three members of the force been killed at one time.

“It’s a terrible loss,” said Police Chief Daryl F. Gates. “Three young men in the prime of their lives.”

Traveling Wrong Way

Authorities said the accident occurred when one of the officers apparently violated department policy by speeding the wrong way on a one-way street in response to a request for assistance by robbery detectives.

A fourth officer, Venson Drake, 28, survived the crash with only cuts and bruises.

It was Drake’s first day on the job. He graduated from the Police Academy on Friday.

Drake, who sang the national anthem at his graduation ceremonies, apparently was the only one of the four who was wearing a safety belt, Gates said.

The chief immediately issued an order reiterating that all members of the force wear safety belts while on duty in their cars.

Existing Police Department policy requires that officers wear their seat belts whenever possible. Many officers, however, rarely wear their belts, complaining that the equipment restricts their ability to get in and out of their cars quickly.

The accident occurred about 4 a.m. at the intersection of 5th and Wall streets in an area of warehouses and flophouses just around the corner from Central station, at which the four officers were assigned to the overnight shift.

Two of the officers, Derrick C. Connor, 28, of Compton, a 1 1/2-year member of the force, and David Lee Hofmeyer, 25, of Rowland Heights, who joined the Police Department in 1985, died of massive head injuries at the scene.

Officer Manuel Gutierrez Jr., 26, of Los Angeles, a four-year veteran, died at 5:50 a.m. as doctors at County-USC Medical Center tried to save him. He, too, suffered massive head injuries.

Gutierrez and Connor were ejected from their car, a coroner’s spokeswoman said.

Backup Call

Gates said that the officers--Hofmeyer and Drake in one car and Connor and Gutierrez in a second car--were responding to a “backup” call from plainclothes detectives who had been tailing a suspicious car with four men inside. A check of the car’s license revealed that it had been stolen in Kern County.

The two detectives pulled the car over on eastbound Winston Street at Wall and were joined by two officers in another black-and-white patrol unit. The detectives and the uniformed officers got out of their cars and approached the men in the stolen car.

At that moment, Gates said, Gutierrez was driving east--the wrong way--on one-way 5th Street in an apparent attempt to quickly reach the scene, Gates said. Hofmeyer, meanwhile, was driving north on Wall Street headed for the same location.

Neither car was authorized to go “Code 3”--responding as if to an emergency--but Gates suggested that the officers were driving as if that were the case. He added that Gutierrez may have activated “some form” of emergency equipment, perhaps flashing lights, but it could not be determined if that was the case.

Violating Police Policy

“There was a strong desire to get to where the detectives were and they were moving at a rate of speed that we would call over-driving,” Gates said. The speed at which both cars was traveling was not immediately known.

As for driving the wrong way on a one-way street, Gates pointed out that police policy requires officers to observe all traffic rules while responding as a backup.

Asked if Gutierrez’s direction of travel violated policy, the chief said, “No question about it.”

Gutierrez’s cruiser slammed into the one in which Hofmeyer and Drake were riding, producing what Gates described as a “tremendous, explosive-type collision.”

The force of the impact propelled Hofmeyer’s and Drake’s car onto the sidewalk and through a wooden barrier bordering a construction site. It then glanced off a steel-reinforced cinder block retaining wall and flew into a 20-foot-deep trench.

The car carrying Gutierrez and Connor spun through the intersection and into a traffic light standard. The force of the impact wrapped the squad car around the pole.

No skid marks could be seen.

One block away, the detectives heard the crash and dropped to the pavement, fearing that they were being shot at, Gates said. The suspects, thinking they too were being shot at, immediately thrust up their hands and were arrested without incident.

Booked on suspicion of auto theft were Willie Jackson, 25, and Gerald Montgomery, 27, both of Los Angeles; Anthony Bush, 25, of Compton and Eddie Ogletree, 30, of Pasadena.

A 21-year-old Bakersfield man, Daldier Woods, who was walking nearby, also was arrested and booked on suspicion of robbery after the car theft suspects pointed him out to the detectives, Gates said. Woods, who is wanted by Bakersfield authorities, allegedly loaned the car to the four suspects. Gates said the suspects would not be held liable for the officers’ deaths, which reverberated throughout the Police Department, particularly in the Central station house.

“A lot of officers are, of course, struck by the tragedy,” one of Central station’s watch commanders, Lt. Paul Pesqueira, said Monday afternoon. “People are pretty sad.” He said that the officers who died were well liked and respected by co-workers.

Mourning at Station

Officers affixed strips of black tape across their badges in mourning while flags in front of city buildings were lowered to half-staff in honor of the officers.

The deaths of the three brought to 173 the number of Los Angeles police officers who have died in the line of duty since 1907. Two other officers have died this year, both the victims of shootings.

Five years ago, two officers were killed when their car was broadsided by a speeding motorist in Chinatown.

Of the three who died Monday, only Hofmeyer was married, authorities said. His wife is pregnant with their first child. Gutierrez was engaged to be married.

Authorities said a memorial service will be held this week.

LAPD TRAGEDY: CARS ON A COLLISION COURSE

At 4 a.m. Monday, two pairs of LAPD officers responded to a call for assistance from police detectives at Winston and Wall streets. The first car, eastbound on 5th Street, a one-way street westbound, carried Officer David Hofmeyer, 25, and his passenger, rookie Officer Venson Drake, 28. A second, northbound on Wall, carried Officer Manuel Gutierrez Jr., 26, and partner Officer Derrick Connor, 28. The cars collided with such force that Gutierrez’s and Connor’s car spun around, crashing into a light pole. Both were ejected. Hofmeyer’s and Drake’s car crashed through a wooden barrier and plunged into a 20-foot-deep construction trench. Hofmeyer and Connor died at the scene. Gutierrez died later at County-USC MedicaL Center. Drake, apparently the only one wearing a seat belt, was treated and released.