7 Officers Hospitalized After Being Sprayed by Suspect
A man resisting arrest sprayed police officers with insecticide Friday, sending seven to the hospital suffering severe eye irritation and nausea, police said.
Police returned chemical fire at Eliyahu Abramson, 25, squirting the man at his home in the 18500 block of Hatteras Street with four canisters of pepper spray, said Los Angeles Police Department spokeswoman Sgt. Stephany Payne.
When the pepper spray failed to subdue Abramson, Payne said, the officers from the West Valley Division shot him with six Taser darts--which conduct an electrical charge--but Abramson pulled four of the darts from his body.
“It was a dart in the leg that finally brought him down,” said West Valley Sgt. Sonny Medina.
The officers were all treated and released at Encino-Tarzana Regional Medical Center in Tarzana, but several will be off work for a few days or on light duty, officials said.
The incident began about 11 a.m., Medina said, when officers responded to a call from the suspect’s brother, who said Abramson “was acting irrational.”
Abramson was charged with assault with a caustic chemical and placed in the Van Nuys Jail, Payne said.
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