Undercover Officer Shot in Drug Probe

A Los Angeles police officer involved in an undercover narcotics investigation was wounded Thursday in a shoot-out in South-Central Los Angeles, police said.

Police spokeswoman Francine Spada said Officer Michael Goosby, 23, was in stable condition at Orthopaedic Hospital with a leg wound.

Goosby was a member of the department’s juvenile narcotics unit, which includes officers whose youthful appearance allows them to pass as teen-agers.

Police Chief Daryl F. Gates, who said he has gone to every shooting involving an officer in his 13 years as chief, monitored the investigation from a command post two blocks from the scene of the shooting.

The incident began when undercover narcotics Officers Kenyard Bilal, 22, and Rashad Sharif, 24, went to check an “active rock house” in the 800 block of East 33rd Street, said Lt. William D. Hall, who heads the department’s officer-involved shooting investigations.

The officers attempted to buy drugs from two men on the front porch, but were ignored, Hall said. The officers left but returned a short time later to find three men who were armed with handguns on the porch, Hall said. The men fired on Bilal and Sharif, shooting out the rear window of their unmarked car.

Goosby and his partner, David Wooden, 31, arrived as backup and exchanged shots with the three men, Hall said. Goosby was wounded in the exchange.

After firing several shots, the gunmen threw down their weapons and surrendered, Hall said. Donald Holden, 25, Jeffrey Martin, 23, and Karonnie Sanders, 23, were held without bail on suspicion of attempted murder of a peace officer, Hall said.

Four handguns, three rifles and a shotgun were recovered from the house, Hall said.