Police Car Strikes, Kills 3-Year-Old Girl

A 3-year-old Inglewood girl was struck and killed by a police car late Saturday, moments after she let go of her mother’s hand and stepped off the curb on a South-Central Los Angeles street, authorities said Sunday.

Dominique Spears was thrown more than 120 feet by the impact of the black-and-white patrol car in the 900 block of West 64th Street. Police said the officers were answering a call about shots fired a short distance away. Police said they had no information about the shots.

Police said the patrol car was traveling within the 25 m.p.h.-to-30 m.p.h. speed limit for the residential street, but some witnesses estimated the vehicle was going at least 50 m.p.h.

The two officers inside the patrol car, neither of whom were identified by police, tried to resuscitate the dying girl, according to Dessie Henry, a neighborhood resident who witnessed the accident. The officers were not injured but were severely shaken by the mishap, police said. Both have sought counseling from a department psychologist.

Dominique was taken to the Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center where she died a short time later, police said.