Officer’s Gun Discharges; Man Struck

A Los Angeles police detective accidentally fired his pistol while trying to take four purse-snatching suspects into custody and the spent bullet struck a man more than a block away without injuring him, a police spokesman said Thursday.

Detective Paul Stewart was in an unmarked police car Wednesday afternoon when he heard a radio call describing men who snatched the purse of an elderly woman, Lt. William Hall said.

Stewart followed an auto that matched the description of the suspects’ car into a Burger King parking lot at Eton Avenue and Sherman Way. Drawing his 9-millimeter pistol, Stewart ordered the suspects to stay in their car, but one of the men jumped out and ran off, Hall said.

Hall said that as Stewart repositioned his aim, “the pistol accidentally discharged.”

Minutes later, Onecimo Galvez, 32, of Canoga Park, who had been sitting in a pickup truck about a block away, appeared and told police that he had been hit by a bullet, which he handed to them.

Paramedics examined the man’s hip, but determined that the bullet--which apparently lost momentum when it ricocheted off a wall or some other surface--had not broken the skin, Hall said.

Hall said the shooting has been determined accidental, but that Stewart could face retraining or other penalties, pending a review of the investigation by Chief Willie L. Williams.