Deputy Wounds Suspect Leaving Hit-Run Accident : Crime: Man seen running from collision allegedly hit officer on the head during struggle and reached for his pistol.

An off-duty, uniformed Los Angeles County Sheriff’s deputy shot and wounded a man running from the scene of a hit-and-run accident in Harbor City on Saturday after the suspect allegedly struck the officer in the head and then reached for his pistol.

The suspect was treated for minor injuries at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center and then arrested, said Deputy Bill Linnemeyer, a department spokesman.

The deputy had just finished his shift at the Blue Line’s Lomita Station and was driving east on Pacific Coast Highway near Figueroa Street at 1:15 a.m. when he spotted a man running from a hit-and-run collision, Linnemeyer said.

The deputy followed the man in a marked patrol car for a quarter mile while calling over the loud speaker for the suspect to stop, authorities said. The deputy then apprehended Richard Manzo, 19, of Wilmington, in the parking lot of a condominium complex at 732 W. 255th St. in Harbor City.

“As the suspect was being handcuffed, the suspect turned on the deputy and struck him twice in the head with his fist, then tried to remove the deputy’s 9-millimeter handgun from the holster,” Linnemeyer said.

He said the two men struggled before the deputy could take control of the handgun. The unidentified deputy fired once, grazing the suspect’s right hip, Linnemeyer added. The suspect fled again before being apprehended in a ravine by assisting Los Angeles police officers.

Manzo was booked on suspicion of taking a police officer’s firearm and battery of a peace officer. The investigation of Manzo’s role in the car collision is continuing, Linnemeyer said.