Armed Pedestrian Arrested after Foot Pursuit

Los Angeles: On May 9, 2008, at about 11 p.m., a man crossing a street pulled a gun on Los Angeles Police Department officers who had attempted to cite him for jaywalking.

LAPD Hollenbeck Division Patrol Officers Gabriel Gaxiola, nine years, seven months with the Department, and Carlos De La Cruz, 10 years, six months with the Department, attempted to cite a jaywalking suspect on Huntington Drive. However, as soon as the officers stopped their car to approach the suspect, he began running down the street.

Officer Gaxiola exited the patrol car and pursued the suspect, Rudy Doria, on foot while Officer De La Cruz followed them in the car. During the pursuit, Doria removed a semiautomatic pistol from his waistband, but lost control of the pistol when he tripped and fell to the pavement.  His weapon landed nearby on the roadway.  As Officer Gaxiola approached he used a kicking technique to prevent Doria from rearming himself.  Doria was promptly taken into custody without further incident. Officers also recovered the suspect’s pistol, which was fully loaded.

No officers were injured during the incident and the suspect was treated for minor injuries at a local hospital. Force Investigation Personnel have responded to this incident and are investigating it as a Categorical Use of Force involving a head strike.

Comments

[A]

Used a "kicking technique"?
It's okay to say the officer just kicked him in the head (as explained in other news articles)...the guy had a gun and it was a necessary tactic.

[Wendy]

What is there to investigate. LAPD needs to save their money and commend these officers, not investigate them.

As for the suspect he should be thankful that's all he got was kicked in the head. If he gets to the gun he problably gets shot and killed.

Great job Officers keep up the good work!!

[Jeff]

One more dirtbag down, a city full to go

[NDynamite]

4 Force Investigation Detectives called out and the man hours investigating: $10,000

RACR notified, COP notified, Captain called out: $5,000

4 Officers not handling radio calls to sit on a "Crime Scene" causing outside divisions to handle calls causing more OT: $5,000

League attorneys, District attorneys, City attorneys called out to investigate: $10,000

2 officers involved seperated waiting to be interviewed 10 hours overtime: $1000

District Attorney reviewing felony charges; rejecting the charges and referring the case to the city attorney. City attorney reviewing the case and pleading it down to 415: Priceless.

[ABC Officer]

kicking technique? The terms are rediculous. He kicked him as hard as he could so the dirtbag wouldn't grab the gun. We need to stop trying to be so "PC" Uses of force are ugly and as soon as the public realizes it we won't have to hang officers who get caught on tape doing what we all do in these ugly situations. Stop trying to water down the facts. When you are in a life or death struggle, you fight for your life.

[Dev P2]

This might be the funniest press release I have seen. It is so vague that the first time I read it I thought that the officer kicked the GUN away from the suspect. Then I read that FID is handling the investigation. What a mess.

If I wrote a UOF report that was this vague the watch commander would laugh in my face and then explain the myriad of constitutional rights that I just violated.

It is one thing to post a press release thanking an officer for doing an outstanding job for taking out/arresting an armed suspect. But it’s a completely different thing to have to post some drivel about "kicking technique" simply because the public has to be told about every categorical use of force and post the officers names.

Officers Gaxiola and De La Cruz great job and an outstanding arrest. I am sure that your supervisors will be happy to write a commendation once FID closes out there investigationand they don’t find any issues with the “technique.”