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One day after ABC featured LAPD officer Kristina Ripatti on Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, Chief William Bratton sent out an update on all the officers who are living with serious injuries incurred this year. For the most part these were reported (on LA Observed and elsewhere) when the injuries happened, but follow-up usually lags:
In August, Hollenbeck Area Officer James Tuck was seriously hurt when he and his partner made a traffic stop in the Montecito Heights area. They had just pulled over a car when the passenger got out and charged the officers. He sprayed their patrol car with high-velocity rounds from an AK-47. Officer Tuck was shot three times, with one bullet nearly severing his left hand at the wrist. The news for this young officer is promising, his physicians believe he will regain about 85 percent of the use of his hand after a year of rehabilitation.Newton Area Officer Enrique Chavez was seriously wounded when his three-year-old son accidentally shot him in the back as they drove near their Anaheim home. Officer Chavez underwent surgery to have a metal rod placed in his spine and he remains paralyzed from the waist down. Officer Chavez is in rehabilitation and is progressing ahead of schedule.
In mid-June, West Traffic Division Officer Michael Toth was riding his Department motorcycle on his way home when he stopped to help officers from the California Highway Patrol conducting an accident investigation. As he was leaving the scene, a sports utility vehicle hit Officer Toth. He was rushed to a hospital and had extensive surgery on injuries to his face, chest and legs. Officer Toth is going through physical therapy and recently had more surgery to repair damage to his right foot. His goal is to be back at work mid-year 2007.And finally, this summer Southwest Area Officer Kristina Ripatti was shot and paralyzed from the chest down while trying to arrest an armed man who had robbed a gas station. Now she spends several days a week in rehab and she works out in a gym to increase her upper body strength. As she learns to adjust to life in a wheelchair, Officer Ripatti also fights to stay mentally fit as she challenges conventional medical wisdom that she will never walk again. Kristina, her husband Southeast Area Officer Tim Pearce, and their young daughter Jordan were recently featured on ABC television’s Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. Their home was “made over” free of charge by hundreds of volunteers to accommodate Officer Ripatti’s new disabilities.
Bratton also reminds everyone that Northeast Area Officer Landon Dorris was killed Oct. 22 while investigating a a minor traffic accident. Officer Dorris is survived by his mother and two sisters, a fiancé and two young sons, ages three and one-and-a-half.