Ex-L.A. Officer Gives Up His Life to Save Film Crew

Allan DeLapp, 60, a retired Los Angeles police officer, died a hero early Wednesday morning when a hit-run driver hurled him into the pavement as he was leading a film crew through Koreatown.

Astride a motorcycle, DeLapp was escorting the crew riding along 7th Street when a driver sped through a stop sign at Oxford Avenue and slammed into DeLapp, police said. The camera crew said DeLapp spied the driver in time to save the film crew from harm by using his motorcycle as a roadblock, according to the production company’s attorney, Lori Todd.

“He saw the oncoming vehicle and apparently turned his motorcycle sideways and took the brunt of it,” Todd said. “Needless to say, that is an heroic act.

“People felt he saved their lives. Literally, that is what I keep hearing,” said Todd, who added that the workers were too distraught to talk about the accident with a reporter.

The suspect, Antonio Harold Rosas, 21, a Colombian native living in Los Angeles, was found hiding in nearby bushes about an hour after the accident occurred at 2:30 a.m. Police, who booked Rosas on suspicion of murder, said he was drunk at the time, with a a blood-alcohol level of .21, more than twice the legal limit.

The crew had been shooting scenes for a movie entitled “Dead Men Don’t Die,” which stars Elliot Gould. The comedy, featuring zombies and a newsroom, is the first film by Waymar Productions. Wednesday’s shoot was canceled because of the accident, Todd said.

Increased His Speed

Witnesses said they thought DeLapp, of Torrance, might have been alive today except for the inexplicable actions of the driver. After Rosas allegedly struck DeLapp, horrified spectators watched as he increased his speed, pinning DeLapp against the hood of the car, police said.

The driver “collided head-on with the officer, then accelerated for some reason, thinking perhaps that the accelerator was the brake,” Sgt. Bill Page said.

The car sped 150 to 200 feet east down 7th Street before hitting a parked car and a curb and rolling over DeLapp, police said. Two members of the film crew grabbed the suspect, but he fled after they joined colleagues who were attempting to lift the suspect’s car off DeLapp’s chest.

DeLapp died at the scene, police said.

Later, members of the crew, communicating with walkie-talkies, dashed through the neighborhood looking for the driver, said Lisa Samia, who watched the scene from her apartment balcony.

“Their voices were trembling,” Samia said. “When they knew he was dead, the ladies were hugging each other.”

Found Hiding in Bushes

A police dog found Rosas hiding in a row of bushes near a parking lot a short distance from the accident scene.

Samia said Rosas, who appeared curled up in a fetal position, was grabbed by the back of his shirt by police and carried as if he were a piece of luggage. Rosas was treated at County-USC Medical Center for treatment of facial injuries and booked there.

DeLapp retired as a motorcycle officer from the Los Angeles Police Department in 1969 after an accident permanently damaged his knee, said Monica Cameron, one of DeLapp’s three daughters. He worked for awhile at a drilling rig company and ran his own mechanic’s shop, but was eventually drawn back to his love of motorcycles.

He found working as a motorcycle officer for the studios during the last eight years an ideal job and took great pride in his two motorcycles, which he constantly washed and polished, Cameron said.

“This was a good thing for him to get into. He still had a little action,” Cameron added.

“He loved it. You couldn’t get him off his motorcycle,” she said. “I knew he’d die on his motorcycle.”