MTA Officer Wounds Woman Driver After Chase

A Metropolitan Transportation Authority police officer shot and wounded a woman motorist after a brief chase through a Willowbrook neighborhood, authorities said Tuesday.

Sylvia Bethea, 37, was shot twice in the arm Monday evening in the driveway of her house in the 1900 block of East 130th Street, said Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies, who are investigating the incident. She was in stable condition at an undisclosed hospital, they said.

Two MTA officers were parked in an unmarked van near a Blue Line Station at Imperial Highway and Wilmington Avenue when they saw Bethea run a red light, deputies said. The officers turned on their siren and flashing lights, but Bethea did not stop and raced home, deputies and an MTA spokesman said.

When she reached her driveway, the MTA officers ordered her out of the car, investigators said. Bethea reached beneath the seat and started to get out of the car with an object in her hands, deputies said.

Thinking that Bethea was reaching for a gun, a transit officer fired his 9-millimeter handgun, hitting Bethea twice, deputies said. The object in her hand turned out to be her keys, said Deputy Bob Killeen.

He said Bethea told investigators that she refused to stop because she did not know her pursuers were police officers. Although the officers were in an unmarked van, they were in full uniform, Killeen said.