Off-Duty Officer Shot in Robbery

Shoppers ducked for cover Saturday as a pair of gunmen trying to rob a check-cashing service exchanged shots with an off-duty Los Angeles police officer working as a security guard.

Officer Richard Munguia, 33, an 11-year-veteran assigned to the vice squad, was wounded in the arm, shoulder and side during the flurry of shots fired shortly before 9 a.m. at Apple Check Cashing at the corner of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Coliseum Street, police said.

One of the gunmen was shot in the foot. He hobbled from the scene, leaving a trail of blood.

Firefighters at a station across the street from the Woodlake Center shopping complex rushed Munguia to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, where he was reported in stable condition Saturday night after undergoing surgery.

“We hit the ground when we heard the shooting start and saw the glass windows breaking,” said firefighter Fernando Jimenez. He said Munguia walked to a nearby convenience market for help after the robbers fled.

“We could see him walking around in the 7-Eleven with a gun in his hand, but we didn’t know whether he was a good guy or a bad guy,” said Fire Capt. Terry Trail. “After four or five minutes, somebody ran over and said an officer needed help.”

Witnesses said the robbers apparently escaped in a car driven by a third man.

Police checked hospitals for the injured robber but no immediate arrests were made, said Lt. William Hall, who heads the Police Department’s officer-involved shooting team.