Body-worn camera footage released this week by the Long Beach Police Department gives the first detailed look at an intense, high-speed shootout that unfolded as officers chased a gunman along the 710 Freeway on Sept. 1.
The Long Beach Post obtained the 35-minute video through a public records request. You can view an edited-down version of it here:
The footage, from the perspective of one officer’s body camera, reveals that a driver fleeing from police fired an AK-47 at police vehicles chasing him. One officer returned fire, shooting through the windshield of the car he was riding in, but did not wound anyone. The chase ultimately ended when the driver exited the freeway in downtown Los Angeles and crashed into a steel fence on South Santa Fe Avenue near East 12th Street, shearing a fire hydrant and sending water shooting up into the underside of his car.
Police were chasing the gunman because of a shooting earlier that night. At about 12:23 a.m., multiple 911 callers reported gunfire in the parking lot behind the Aquarium of the Pacific. The remote area next to the Queens Way Bridge is off Golden Shore, just south of West Shoreline Drive…