By Brenda Gazzar
Daily News
LOS ANGELES — A 24-year-old Los Angeles Police Department patrol officer who was killed in an off-duty traffic collision in Torrance on Saturday has been identified as Erick Alcaraz, authorities said Sunday.
Alcaraz was driving his own private motorcycle southbound on Western Avenue just before 5 p.m. Saturday when a driver in a 2013 Kia Optima turned left from West 234th Street onto South Western and collided into him, according to a preliminary account from the Torrance Police Department.
Alcaraz, a Carson resident, was pronounced dead at the scene at 5:12 p.m. by Torrance Fire Department personnel, said Lt. Fred Corral of the Los Angeles County Department of Coroner. His autopsy is scheduled for Monday.
The driver of the Kia Optima, a 54-year-old Torrance woman, was not injured and is cooperating in the investigation, said Lt. Mike Jezulin, a watch commander for the Torrance Police Department. There is no reason to believe that drugs or alcohol were involved, he said.
Alcaraz, a Marine Corps veteran who had worked for LAPD for 18 months, had just finished his one-year probation at Southwest Patrol Division, according to LAPD. Sunday would have been his first day assigned to the West Los Angeles area, police said.
“The entire LAPD is grieving the loss of a young officer killed in an off-duty traffic collision,” LAPD Chief Charlie Beck said in the statement. “Our hearts go out to the family, friends and co-workers of this fine officer during this difficult time.”
With Alcaraz’s death, the Los Angeles Police Department has now lost a total of seven officers this year, including six who died in traffic collisions.
In March, Officer Nicholas Lee was killed when an out-of-control dump truck on windy Loma Vista Drive in Beverly Hills struck his patrol car as he responded to a call. Motorcycle Officer Christopher Cortijo, while on DUI watch in April for the Valley Traffic Division, was struck from behind by an allegedly drug-impaired driver in Sun Valley and succumbed to his injuries four days later. In May, Officer Roberto Sanchez was killed and his partner seriously injured when a driver of an SUV allegedly intentionally slammed into their police cruiser as the officers pursued another vehicle in Harbor City.
Another officer, Detective Ernest L. Allen Sr., was off duty when his personal car was struck by a large cement truck in May also on Loma Vista Drive, resulting in his death. Officer Kathleen Talbot of the Rampart
Division died in July from injuries she sustained in a traffic accident in Santa Clarita on her way to work.
Officer George Nagata Jr., a 33-year department veteran last assigned to the Central Area, died of a medical condition in May.
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