An Alhambra police officer and another person were killed early Thursday during a car chase that ended in a traffic collision.<\/p>\n
Alhambra Police Chief Garrett Kennedy identified the officer as 28-year-old Alec Sanders during a news conference outside the Los Angeles General Medical Center, where the officer was taken following the crash.<\/p>\n
Sanders had been with the department for eight months and previously served at the Long Beach Police Department for about a year.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s known for his unwavering reliability,\u201d Kennedy said. \u201cHe was the type of officer who responded to every call whether he was dispatched to it or not; he was one of those officers.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kennedy said Sanders would be remembered for his \u201cdedication, his kindness and the positive impact he had on everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIn fact, last night he came into work and covered a shift for somebody,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
California Highway Patrol Assistant Chief Joe Zizi said the traffic collision occurred just after 3 a.m. at the intersection of West Valley Boulevard and Edgewood Drive.<\/p>\n
\\CHP investigators said that a Hyundai, driven by 27-year-old El Monte resident Steven Zapata, was traveling northbound on Edgewood Drive and passed through the intersection of Valley Boulevard at an unknown speed.<\/p>\n
At that instant, investigators said, Sanders\u2019 patrol vehicle was traveling westbound on Valley Boulevard through the intersection and the crash occurred.<\/p>\n
There were two other individuals in the Hyundai sport utility vehicle.<\/p>\n
An unidentified 33-year-old female was ejected from the SUV and pronounced dead at the scene. Zapata and an unidentified 52-year-old male were taken to local hospitals with moderate and non-life-threatening injuries, respectively.<\/p>\n
Zapata was allegedly driving a stolen vehicle, according to the preliminary investigation.<\/p>\n
Standing outside of the hospital, Kennedy described Sanders as a devoted \u201cfiance and a dedicated family man.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said Sanders was passionate about fitness, liked to travel and was an \u201centhusiastic Dallas Cowboys fan.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHe will be deeply missed by his family, friends and co-workers, who are all one and the same,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Gov. Gavin Newsom said he had ordered flags at the state Capitol and capital office building to be lowered to half-staff.<\/p>\n
\u201cJennifer and I offer our deepest sympathies to the family, friends, and colleagues of Officer Sanders,\u201d Newsom said in a written statement, referring to first partner Jennifer Siebel Newsom. \u201cHis exemplary service and unwavering courage reflect the highest ideals of public duty.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hilda Solis, chair pro tem of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, also ordered flags on government properties to be flown at half-staff.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am deeply saddened by the tragic collision that occurred this morning during a pursuit in Alhambra, which resulted in the death of Officer Alec Sanders,\u201d she wrote in a statement. <\/p>\n
Solis, along with Sen. Sasha Ren\u00e9e P\u00e9rez (D-Pasadena), whose district includes Alhambra, expressed sadness over the loss of the officer and support for his family and friends.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a tragic loss of a young public servant who had just recently begun his position with the Alhambra Police Department, but who had already distinguished himself as the kind of reliable police officer who endeared himself to his fellow officers and to his community,\u201d P\u00e9rez said. \u201cAs the former Mayor of Alhambra, I know the deep loss this will leave in our close-knit city that stands together in times of loss and grief.\u201d<\/p>\n
Times staff writer Andrew J. Campa contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An Alhambra police officer and another person were killed early Thursday during a car chase that ended in…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":394131,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5123],"tags":[187118,1582,276,4903,187119,187121,6478,22628,6752,2961,224,5337,5948,4531,24659,1634,9260,12091,187120,187117],"class_list":{"0":"post-394130","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-alhambra-police-officer","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-california","11":"tag-crash","12":"tag-early-morning-pursuit-crash","13":"tag-edgewood-drive","14":"tag-hospital","15":"tag-intersection","16":"tag-kennedy","17":"tag-la","18":"tag-los-angeles","19":"tag-losangeles","20":"tag-loss","21":"tag-officer","22":"tag-person","23":"tag-sanders","24":"tag-scene","25":"tag-traffic-collision","26":"tag-west-valley-boulevard","27":"tag-zizi"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115586508176097512","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394130","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=394130"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394130\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/394131"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=394130"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=394130"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=394130"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}