Councilman Apprehends Hit-and-Run Suspect : Crime: Anaheim’s Lou Lopez, an off-duty police investigator, chases and arrests driver.

For the second time this year, off-duty police investigator Lou Lopez, also one of the city’s newly elected councilmen, chased and collared a suspected hit-and-run driver Wednesday.

Lopez said he was raking his front yard on Viking Avenue about 7:30 p.m. when he heard a crash and saw that a black Camaro had struck a parked car and was taking off down the street. Lopez dropped his rake and jumped into his own car. He found the Camaro parked in front of a building a few blocks away on South State College Boulevard.

Lopez pulled up behind him, blocking his escape, and arrested the driver, who was still shaking glass out of his hair, Lopez said.

Lopez, a 26-year veteran of the Anaheim police force, was sworn into office last November. The arrest was almost an exact replay of one in January in which he was again off-duty and witnessed a hit-and-run accident. In that case, though, he held the suspect at gunpoint until help arrived.

“People have to get involved,” Lopez said.