LAPD Denies Violating Rules for Officer in Hit-Run Case

The Los Angeles Police Department said Sunday that a veteran police officer wanted for questioning in a hit-and-run driving investigation was not given preferential treatment, allowing him to flee a police station and commit suicide.

LAPD spokesman Mike Partain said Officer Bryce Wicks was not even a prime suspect when he fled the North Hollywood station Friday.

“No rules or guidelines were violated in any way, shape or form,” Partain said.

Wicks, 54, killed himself shortly after learning that he was wanted for questioning in an incident that left a mother and her 10-month-old daughter seriously injured. Questions had been raised about whether Wicks may have been given special treatment, because he was not arrested and was instead told only to wait for investigators from the Valley Traffic Division.

Partain said witnesses had obtained a partial license plate number for the vehicle involved in the accident. Investigators identified several cars with similar license plate numbers and descriptions, including Wick’s Ford Bronco.

“They were looking at a number of vehicles,” Partain said. “Officer Wicks’ happened to be one of them, and they wanted to check it out with him.”

Partain said Wicks’ supervisor told him that detectives were on their way to the station to speak with him, but not why.

While his supervisor was momentarily distracted, the 28-year veteran of the LAPD left the station, drove to his Acton home and shot himself in the head, police said. Wicks was not being questioned when he slipped away, Partain said.

The accident occurred Thursday night in the 7900 block of Lankershim Boulevard. Juanita Mercado, 23, of North Hollywood suffered a broken leg and collarbone. Her infant daughter, Leslie De La Cruz, received second- and third-degree road burns over 30% of her body after her stroller was struck and dragged several hundred feet by the vehicle.

Mercado was in critical condition Sunday night at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center; her daughter was in fair condition at Childrens Hospital.

Wicks’ colleagues said he seemed depressed after his partner and best friend had committed suicide in June. The two men worked side by side in a single cubicle.

The accident is still under investigation, Partain said. He refused to say whether toxicological studies would be performed on the body.

“The detectives still have to examine the [officer’s] vehicle to determine if it was the one involved and that he was the person driving it,” he said.