Officers Wounded in Shootout to Be Lauded
Eleven Los Angeles police officers wounded in February’s North Hollywood bank shootout will be honored today at the William H. Parker Los Angeles Police Foundation’s Heroes and Heroines luncheon.
The event will raise funds for the foundation’s effort to start a tactical training school for officers to supplement their police academy training.
Mayor Richard Riordan and LAPD Acting Chief Bayan Lewis will be joined by several members of the City Council and Police Commission at the sold-out event, which is being held at the Universal City Hilton & Towers.
Capt. Richard Eide, who heads the LAPD’s recently formed in-service training division, said fund-raising for the training school preceded the Feb. 28 shootout.
“But it’s such a natural fit” for the luncheon, he said. The shootout, in which 11 officers and six bystanders were injured, “was a big tactical operation. It’s only known to God why people weren’t killed. It makes sense to combine the two.”
Eide said he expects the school to open by next June.
“We want this school to be a school for the general officer and detective out there in the station,” he said. “It’s the average guy who doesn’t get this kind of training.”
The Parker Foundation began to provide money in 1966 for training in special areas of police work involving helicopters, dogs and sniper shootings.
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