Boy Hit, Killed by Police Car Responding to Call : Tragedy: The youth was struck when he ran onto the street as officers were driving to the site of a gang shooting. An investigation is under way.

No shots were fired under the palm trees on Occidental Boulevard. No guns were even drawn. But a shootout between gang members and police several blocks away still appears to have claimed the life of a 10-year-old boy.

He died Sunday after being hit by a police car responding to an assistance call after a drive-by shooting near Shatto Place in the Mid-Wilshire district.

One person was killed and another was critically injured in the shooting. One of the assailants fired on detectives, and more than 20 Los Angeles police cars rushed to cordon off a quarter-mile-square area as officers pursued the suspects.

Investigators looking into the crash filed an initial report Monday but have not determined whether the driver was following Los Angeles Police Department procedure.

Specialists from the collision detail have measured skid marks and calculated points of impact at the accident site, but a police spokesman said the investigation could still take several weeks.

Two officers from the LAPD’s Rampart Division were heading south on Occidental Boulevard about 5 p.m. Sunday to help secure the drive-by shooting scene when the boy, who was playing in a grassy median, ran into the street. The driver slammed on the brakes but could not stop before hitting the child, who was taken to Childrens Hospital, the spokesman said.

The officers were responding under a “Code 2” status, which directs them to go to a crime scene immediately without using sirens or flashing lights, said Lt. Charles Kunz, who is leading the accident investigation.

That status calls for officers to obey standard traffic rules, including speed limits, as strictly as possible.

The speed limit in the area is 25 m.p.h., and Kunz said investigators had not determined how fast the police car was traveling.

“This is a tragedy, for the family of the boy and for the officers involved. There’s no other way to describe it,” Kunz said. “These officers were, in good faith, responding to a situation that required police officers. They were trying to do the right thing by responding to it.”

The car, being examined at an LAPD motor pool, appears to have sustained significant damage. Police spokesman Eduardo Funes said the boy, whose name was not released, weighed about 120 pounds. He was attending a birthday party for a girl in the courtyard of an apartment complex in the 400 block of Occidental Boulevard.

Inside the apartment, half-finished bottles of soft drinks and a stack of party napkins still sat on the kitchen table Monday.

The girl’s father, who was folding chairs used at the party, refused to comment on the incident.