Youth in Vehicle Fleeing From Officer Shot in Head

A 17-year-old boy was critically wounded in the back of the head early Monday when an off-duty police officer fired at the car in which he and a companion allegedly were fleeing from an Eagle Rock convenience store with two stolen cases of beer, detectives reported.

Investigators said the unidentified youth and Eddie Arzate, 20, both of Highland Park, ran out of a 7-Eleven store at 1910 W. Colorado Blvd. with the beer shortly after midnight as the clerk, Kurian Tharaikat, chased them.

A store employee who asked not to be identified said Monday evening, “Those kids were making what they call a beer run. We have a strict company policy not to chase them. That just makes me sick . . . getting kids shot over beer.”

Tharaikat could not be reached.

Officer Robert Bain, 45, was driving into the parking lot with his 24-year-old son, Brian, as Tharaikat shouted what the officer believed to be “I’ve been robbed,” authorities reported.

While his son followed the suspects on foot, Officer Bain drove after the suspects and attempted to cut them off with his vehicle just as they got into a car on Highland View Avenue, according to police.

Officer Bain, who believed “he was confronting armed robbery suspects,” drew his personal 9-millimeter pistol, got out of his car, identified himself as a police officer and ordered the two to remain in their own vehicle, police said.

But the suspects’ car allegedly accelerated, crashed into a parked vehicle and then sped away. Bain fired once, police said, striking the driver’s side window.

Several residents of the block, however, said they distinctly heard two shots, and one witness said he saw a flash from the officer’s weapon on the second sound.

About 1 a.m., Arzate drove to County-USC Medical Center with the wounded teen-ager and two women, Rhonda Hicks, 23, and Angie Tovar, 22, police said. The wounded youth was placed on a life-support system.

Arzate was booked on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon, a vehicle.