A teenage boy at the wheel of a stolen van was killed and another suspect was critically injured when the vehicle struck a Los Angeles Fire Department truck in Florence during a high-speed chase, police said Thursday.
Two firefighters also suffered minor injuries, said Brian Humphrey of the Los Angeles Fire Department.
Engine 233, attached to Station 33 in South Los Angeles, was arriving on a medical call at the time of the collision in the 100 block of East 84th Street at 9:17 p.m. Wednesday, Humphrey said.
The chase began after gang officers from the Los Angeles Police Department’s Southeast Division responded to a call of shots fired in the 500 block of Colden Avenue, where one person was wounded, said LAPD Officer Jack Richter.
The officers saw a black van that had been reported as stolen leaving the scene at high speed and gave chase, Richter said. The van sped north on South Main Street before colliding with the front of the fire truck as it was making a turn.
The driver of the van — a 17-year-old boy whose name was not immediately released — died at the scene, said LAPD Officer Rosario Herrera. The passenger in the van — his name and age were not immediately released — was hospitalized in critical condition, and faces possible charges of assault with a deadly weapon and felony evading, Herrera said.
Two firefighters were taken to a hospital for evaluation of injuries that were not regarded as life-threatening, Humphrey said.
The condition of the gunshot victim on Colden Avenue was not immediately reported.
—City News Service