Shooting at LAPD station in Mid-City deemed an isolated incident

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An officer stands by a cache of weapons that were found at the home of Daniel Yealu, the man accused of shooting one officer in the lobby of a police station. (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)

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Officer Ricky Brown puts up red tape at the entrance to an LAPD station in Mid-City where an officer was shot Monday night in the lobby. (Anne Cusack / Los Angeles Times)

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Los Angeles Police Officer Len Lai stands on yellow tape as an emergency response truck leaves an LAPD station in Mid-City L.A. where an officer was shot Monday night. (Anne Cusack / Los Angeles Times)

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Los Angeles Police Officer Ricky Brown stands in front of an LAPD station in Mid-City where an officer was shot in the lobby Monday night. (Anne Cusack / Los Angeles Times)

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A uniform with bullet holes that belonged to an officer who was shot in the lobby of a station on Venice Boulevard. (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)

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LAPD Chief Charlie Beck speaks to the media about the condition of the injured officer at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center on Monday night. “He is in great spirits,” Beck said. He described the officer as a “remarkable young man” who was “very, very lucky.” (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)

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An ambulance, rear, that carried one of the shooting victims sits outside the emergency entrance to Cedars-Sinai Hospital on Monday. A squad car that accompanied the ambulance is in the foreground. (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)

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An LAPD officer stands guard at La Brea Avenue and Venice Boulevard, about a block from the station where the shooting occurred. (Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times)

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The shooting was reported about 8:30 p.m. The suspect was critically wounded. (Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times)

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Investigators are trying to piece together how the violence unfolded, including how the gunman got to the station. (Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times)

By Los Angeles Times staff

April 8, 2014 6:46 AM PT

The shooting in a Mid-City Los Angeles police station lobby Monday that left one officer injured and a gunman in critical condition was an isolated incident, a department spokesman said Tuesday.

The shooting was reported about 8:30 p.m. at the LAPD Wilshire Division on Venice Boulevard near South La Brea Avenue.

Four rounds hit the Los Angeles police officer in his ballistic vest and three hit his extremities, authorities said. He is expected to survive.

LAPD Chief Charlie Beck said at a news conference after the shooting that the officer was “very, very lucky,” and by returning fire, saved his partner’s life.

“He is in great spirits,” Beck told reporters, describing the officer as a “remarkable young man.”

The wounded officer was being treated at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, where officers descended on the emergency room in a show of support. The name of the officer was not released.

The station is often quiet at night, but a community meeting with about 35 people was underway in a room near the lobby when the gunman began firing, police said.

The suspect, who was armed with a handgun, fired multiple rounds at the officer. One round went through his left arm, Cmdr. Dennis Kato said.

The suspect was wounded and in critical condition after the two officers returned the gunfire.

Kato said investigators were trying to piece together details on the suspect and how he traveled to the station.

“We don’t know who he is, where he came from,” Kato said. “We don’t even have a name on him at this point.”

Daphne Brogdon, a member of the Olympic Park Neighborhood Council, was at the group’s monthly meeting inside the station’s West Bureau community room when the gunfire broke out.

After the shots began, Brogdon jumped up, ran to a lectern and dove beneath it, trying to shield herself.

“I hid, and everyone else just hit the ground,” she said. “Everyone was trying to be really quiet, and the shots continued.”

One of her colleagues on the neighborhood council, a mother like herself, was next to her.

“We were just holding hands, looking at each other saying, ‘Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Oh, my God.’”

Brogdon said she was reluctant to look up when she heard people entering the room but saw that it was police officers checking on them. She was terrified it was the shooter entering.

When she did look up, she saw that a bullet had come into the room, not far from her.