San Gabriel : Boy’s Shooting Investigated
Los Angeles County sheriff’s investigators are investigating a weekend incident in San Gabriel in which an off-duty police officer shot and wounded a 15-year-old boy who was reaching into the officer’s car, authorities said.
The name of the South Pasadena Police Department officer was withheld.
According to police reports, the officer saw the boy leaning through the open window of his Ford Escort in the parking lot of Nina’s Mexican Restaurant on Saturday night.
San Gabriel Police Lt. Jim Goodman said the officer’s gun apparently discharged accidentally as he prepared to confront the boy. The bullet grazed the youth’s chest. He was treated at a hospital and released, Goodman said.
The boy, a resident of El Sereno, told investigators that he was playing with a cousin who threw the boy’s wallet into the car as a prank. The teen-ager told officers that he was trying to retrieve the wallet.
South Pasadena Police Chief Tom Mahoney said the officer, a probationary employee with about six months on the force, requested a day or two of vacation after the shooting. But Mahoney said no disciplinary action will be considered until the investigation is completed.
The Sheriff’s Department investigates officer-involved shootings in San Gabriel.
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