Badly Wounded Police Detective Making Recovery

A veteran Los Angeles police detective, in critical condition after a shooting earlier this week, “turned the corner” Wednesday and was recovering, authorities said.

John Marzullo--a plainclothes detective supervisor at the Wilshire station--underwent an operation that lasted 1 1/2 hours Wednesday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center to repair damage from gunshot wounds to the chest and shoulder, said Ron Wise, spokesman for the hospital.

“Early this morning, (he) began to improve considerably,” Wise said of Marzullo, adding that his condition had been upgraded to serious.

Marzullo, 53, was following up on an investigation at a pawn shop on Pico Boulevard near West Boulevard about 2 p.m. Tuesday when witnesses told him a nearby burger stand had been robbed, police said.

Fortino Miguel and Norio Tokeshi, who work at the new Fat Tomy’s burger stand at Pico and Mullen Avenue, said a man in his early 20s came into the restaurant wanting to sell a gun and demanding $500 for it.

“I told him we didn’t have $500, and we didn’t want to buy a gun,” Miguel, 22, said Wednesday, still shocked about the holdup the day before.

“I had only $3 on me, and he had $5,” he said, pointing to Tokeshi, 20. “So we gave it to him.”

The gunman took the money and ran north on Mullen Avenue, Miguel said.

Two men who work at the pawn shop across the street were at the restaurant at the time, Miguel said. They ran back to the store and reported the robbery to Marzullo, who police said was following up on an investigation at the shop.

Marzullo followed the gunman in his car for about two blocks. When Marzullo caught up with the man near Dockweiler Street and West Avenue and got out of his car, the gunman shot him twice and fled.

The gunman is still at large, police said.

Colleagues describe Marzullo as a dedicated policeman who, with more than 30 years of service, could have retired with full benefits by now but chose to continue working.

“The normal thing to do, especially nowadays, is to retire, but not him,” said Lt. Ron Code, commanding officer of the Wilshire Division’s detective bureau.

“He’s been doing this for so long,” Code added. “He is a down to earth, good-hearted, working detective.”

Marzullo, a detective supervisor who spends several hours a day inside the station but is sometimes out in the field, had been alone Tuesday afternoon because his partner had to go to the district attorney’s office, Code said.