Incident at DMV Leads to Gunfire

Two California Department of Motor Vehicles officers shot at a man they said tried to run over a fellow officer with a car in Artesia early Wednesday, state officials said.

The incident occurred about 9 a.m. when the man came into the DMV field office at 17100 Pioneer Blvd. and tried to get a driver’s license using a fake passport, said Lt. Jeff Scroggin of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department’s Lakewood station. Officers tried to arrest him but the man fought them, then ran outside into the parking lot.

As the officers gave chase, one tripped. The fleeing man reached a car, got in, and appeared to drive toward the fallen officer, officials said.

The two other officers, believing their colleague was about to be struck, fired four shots at the car, hitting it at least once, Scroggin said. The officers could not tell whether the man, who drove away and escaped, had been hit, he said. The officer who fell suffered bruises and scratches. Sheriff’s detectives are investigating the shooting.

The DMV is one of 30 state agencies with its own armed law enforcement officers, said agency spokesman Mike Miller.

DMV investigators document fraud relating to registration and licenses, and look into crimes involving fake license plates and scratched-out vehicle identification numbers, among other functions, he said. There are 242 such sworn officers in the state.