Questioned in Hit-Run, LAPD Officer Kills Self

A veteran Los Angeles police officer committed suicide Friday after being confronted by investigators as a suspect in a hit-and-run accident that seriously injured a woman and her 10-month-old daughter, whose stroller was dragged behind a vehicle for several hundred feet, police said.

A partial license plate number and vehicle description provided by a witness led investigators to Officer Bryce “Ray” Wicks, a top fingerprinting expert in the Los Angeles Police Department who had been handpicked to train others during his 28-year career.

Wicks, of the LAPD’s North Hollywood Division, was interviewed Friday morning by investigators and slipped away during a break in the questioning. He drove to his Acton home, spoke briefly with his wife, and then shot himself with a revolver about 4 p.m.

Chief Bernard C. Parks confirmed the suicide and Wicks’ involvement in the hit-and-run investigation at a news conference at Parker Center, where he said, “Both incidents are tragic.”

He said the officer showed no signs of trouble before killing himself and did not implicate himself during the questioning.

“Nothing . . . would have forewarned us,” Parks said. “He chose a route that none of us had the ability to alter.”

After realizing that Wicks had left the building, two officers followed him to his home.

When they arrived, Wicks’ wife came to the door and told the officers that her husband appeared despondent and was by himself in the back of the house.

It was then that Wicks shot himself with a revolver. There were apparently no witnesses and it was unclear whether Wicks used his department-issued weapon.

Witnesses told police a white Ford Bronco struck the mother and child as they were in a crosswalk about 8:15 p.m. Thursday. The vehicle caught the stroller, dragging it until the infant was thrown out.

The baby, Leslie De La Cruz, suffered second- and third-degree burns and was airlifted to Childrens Hospital Los Angeles, where she was listed in serious but stable condition and was awaiting plastic surgery. Her mother, 23-year-old Juanita Mercado, sustained a broken leg and collarbone and was listed in guarded condition Friday night at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center.

Juanita Mercado had spent Thursday night visiting with her father and brother, who live a few blocks from her home.

About 8 p.m., her father started walking with her the few blocks home. “He was running after the truck, but it didn’t stop,” her brother, Sergio Mercado, said of their father. “If only he would have stopped.”

Sergio Mercado said his father watched in horror as the Bronco dragged the stroller with the baby inside.

“He just hit the gas pedal and took off . . . dragging the stroller up underneath his car. Sparks were flying everywhere,” said witness Sam Davis. “The baby’s not making any sound. When he got to the corner, turned right, that’s what exited the baby from the stroller. . . . It came out just like someone threw a beer can out the window.”

The accident occurred in the 7900 block of Lankershim Boulevard, between the North Hollywood police station and Interstate 5, the most direct route to Wicks’ home between the Santa Clarita and Antelope valleys.

On Friday evening, yellow police tape cordoned off the area around Wicks’ home, which is in a community of pricey ranch-style houses about a mile from the Antelope Valley Freeway.

Neighbors said Wicks and his wife, Elaine, had lived in the Crown Meadows Estates neighborhood since the first home was built in 1988.

“He told a neighbor he was ready for retirement,” said one resident who asked not to be named.

Wicks was one of two officers handpicked by department brass in 1986 to train nearly 100 fellow officers in fingerprinting techniques and establish a specialized unit in that skill.

Under Wicks and partner Ron Troncone, the North Hollywood division became the leader in catching suspects through fingerprints for six years running, and the LAPD earned a national reputation for gathering prints.

Wicks’ suicide only added to the Mercado family’s grief, said Sergio Mercado. “I would have preferred for him to turn himself in and just face the charges,” he said. “But clearly he felt too guilty.”

Times staff writers Evelyn Larrubia and Eric Malnic and correspondent Claire Vitucci contributed to this story.

* CHILD KILLED: A car hits and kills a 6-year-old boy on a Highland Park sidewalk. Three are injured. B1