Suspect Shot, Arrested in Car Chase Through Valley Streets : Crime: He allegedly brandished pellet gun before being wounded by officer, who lost control of his motorcycle and crashed.

A Los Angeles motorcycle officer Thursday shot and wounded a man who charged him with his car and threatened him with a pellet gun, authorities said.

After firing, the officer lost control of the motorcycle and went down. Other officers on the scene pursued the suspect and after a chase on surface streets rammed his car and captured him, according to a statement issued late Thursday by Lt. John Dunkin, of the Los Angeles Police Department.

Motorcycle Officer George Maycott, 48, was taken to North Hollywood Medical Center. Maycott was in good condition and was expected to be released today, Officer Jon Herrington said late Thursday.

The suspect, identified by police as Larry Rodrick, 33, had been shot once in the left forearm. He was taken to Northridge Hospital Medical Center for treatment, Dunkin said.

The weapon Rodrick allegedly held, a pellet gun, was recovered at the scene, according to the police statement.

The incident began when Maycott, a 20-year LAPD veteran, saw Rodrick commit a traffic violation near the intersection of Sherman Oaks Avenue and Flume Walk at about 3:45 p.m., the statement said.

Rodrick, driving a white Chevrolet Corsica, allegedly ignored Maycott’s order to stop and the chase began northward on surface streets until they entered the 5300 block of Leghorn Avenue in Van Nuys, according to police.

Rodrick suddenly made a U-turn, the statement said, and drove directly toward Maycott.

As the suspect bore down on the him, Maycott saw Rodrick grab what appeared to him to be an automatic handgun, the statement said, and point it directly at him.

Maycott pulled his service revolver and fired once, striking Rodrick in the arm. The officer then lost control of the motorcycle and crashed, Dunkin said.

Then in a scene captured from overhead news helicopters, patrol cars and unmarked cars chased the driver south on Van Nuys Boulevard where additional patrol cars approached from the opposite direction.

In the 5000 block of Van Nuys, a patrol car rammed Rodrick’s Corsica, which caused the car to spin and face north. He again tried to flee, police said, until his vehicle collided with an unmarked police car.

Police officers from more than half a dozen cars jumped out and pointed their weapons at Rodrick, who then threw his hands in the air and surrendered.

Police said they believe the car he was driving was stolen in St. Louis in July.

At 6:30 p.m., more than two hours after the chased ended, police still had a section of Van Nuys Boulevard cordoned off between Burbank and Magnolia boulevards. Rodrick’s car appeared badly damaged at the rear left wheel, and blood was visible on the roof of the vehicle.

Dunkin said there was no early indication that Maycott violated police procedure in the chase when he fired his weapon from the moving motorcycle.

“There is nothing that says you can’t fire at or from a vehicle if the circumstances warrant it,” Dunkin said. “We don’t shoot at vehicles. We shoot at suspects in vehicles.”

Jerome Plotnick, 53, a psychiatrist who was walking his dogs in a park across the street from the scene, said he watched the police block Rodrick’s car and then subdue, handcuff and escort him.

“It was wild, the guy was heading this way,” he said pointing south, “and then the (police) car rammed him and he did a 180,” he said.

The Sherman Oaks resident said he was saddened but not surprised by the scene because two months earlier he had witnessed and unwittingly become entangled in a fight between two rival street gangs who met at the park to fight.

“I was sitting right here,” he said from a fast-food restaurant directly across from the park, “when I got a 9-millimeter pistol shoved into my face.”