Officer Wounded in Shootout Is Improving
A North Hollywood Division police officer seriously wounded in a New Year’s Eve gun battle has been transferred to a different hospital and is recovering more rapidly than expected, police and hospital officials said Wednesday.
Officer Cynthia French, a 16-year Los Angeles Police Department veteran, was shot several times as she and other officers answered a call about a man with a gun in the 10900 block of Bluffside Drive in Studio City.
Officers dragged French to an ambulance, as others fought a running battle with a man wearing a military-style helmet and armed with two semiautomatic rifles and a handgun.
The man, later identified as James Travis McCracken, 32, was shot and killed by police.
Doctors at USC University Hospital, where French was transferred late Monday from County/USC Medical Center, are working to have French sit up and may have her on her feet and walking soon, said Capt. Richard Wahler of the LAPD’s North Hollywood Division.
“It’s miraculous,” Wahler said. “She was shot very, very seriously by a high-powered weapon. It would not have been surprising if she had fatal injuries.”
Doctors had thought French might be in the intensive care unit for two weeks or more, but she left after just four days, he added.
USC University Hospital is a better facility for the next stage of French’s recovery, Wahler said.
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