Youth Fires at Police Officer and Escapes
A suspected truant teenager shot at a police officer Tuesday and escaped police dogs and a helicopter in a large-scale search of the neighborhood surrounding Kennedy High School.
A Los Angeles Police officer assigned to patrol area schools hailed a youth he suspected was a truant Kennedy student about noon near San Fernando Mission Boulevard and Woodley Avenue. The teenager ran away, and the officer chased him.
“There was a short foot pursuit and then the truant fires a round off at him,” said Los Angeles Police Sgt. Dan Mastro of the Devonshire station. “That’s why we have juvenile cops out there--a lot of these kids are up to no good.”
Police set up a command post in a strip mall parking lot and searched nearby Bull Creek without success. They then widened their search, cordoning off one block, locking down the nearby Kennedy High School campus and calling in a police helicopter and K-9 units, which conducted house-to-house searches.
Classes were disrupted because students were not allowed to change classrooms or leave campus until an hour after the regular dismissal time.
Police thought that the youth might have fled onto the campus to hide, but after about four hours, officers gave up the search.
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