Claudia Apolinar, one of two Los Angeles deputies shot in their patrol car by an unknown shooter in Compton on Saturday night, is a former librarian who had graduated from the Los Angeles Police Academy just last year. Despite her inexperience and the fact that she had taken multiple bullets to her chest and face, she pulled her partner to safety and radioed for help.
Apolinar, 31, who is also the mother of a six-year-old, is in a stable condition at a local hospital, her father Adolfo told the Daily Mail . “I’m here with her right now,” he said in Spanish as he kept vigil beside her bed on Monday night. Apolinar’s partner is also in a stable condition.
Footage of the incident released by the sheriff’s department showed the suspect approaching a parked police vehicle on foot and firing a handgun multiple times through the passenger side window, before running away. Apolinar took multiple bullets, including one to her jaw and several to her upper torso. However, she somehow managed to pull her partner, a 24-year-old man who has yet to be named, to safety. Once at a safe distance, she then applied a tourniquet and called for backup and medical assistance, getting word out that a shooter was on the loose.
Videos of the aftermath of the attack show Apolinar covered in blood, giving medical help to her injured partner. Lead investigating officer Lt. Brandon Dean praised her response to the attack, telling the Daily Mail:
“It’s an extreme situation. She was shot in the face, shot in the upper torso several times. To have the wherewithal to get yourself out of the vehicle and the line of fire in case it continues, but then to take care of your partner, initiate radio traffic make sure the civilians in the area are safe, it shows a lot about her courage and intestinal fortitude.”
According to local government records, Apolinar had worked as an aide at the Los Angeles court libraries from 2011, and signed up with the Sheriff’s Department in 2017.
The LA Sheriff’s Department is offering $100,000 for information leading to the arrest of the shooter, who is still at large. “At this point we have a very, very generic description of a dark-skinned male and that came from one of the victims,” Captain Kent Wegener told a news conference earlier this week.
While investigators have not revealed a motive for the shooting, some believe it may be tied to police shooting incidents. On Monday, Fox News reporter William la Jeunesse said: “Los Angeles police will not say this publicly — but some believe this ambush was retaliation for some recent police shootings of black suspects in LA.”
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