Sandy MaloneApple Valley, CA – A Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) officer was arrested on Sunday after he shot another LAPD officer while they were on an off-duty camping trip in San Bernardino County.
The incident began late on Saturday night at a campsite in the Stoddard Wells Off-Highway Vehicle (OHV) area, KNBC reported.
Officials said the two officers were with an LAPD supervisor and that the three men had been drinking and shooting.
Sources told KNBC that both of the officers were assigned to the Newton Division just south of downtown Los Angeles.
San Bernardino County sheriff’s deputies responded to a report of a shooting of a 48-year-old man at the campsite at about 1:17 a.m. on Sunday morning, according to a news release from the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department.
“Detectives learned three friends were camping and shooting guns at the OHV area over the weekend,” the press release said. “Early Sunday morning, for reasons still under investigation, (Ismael) Tamayo shot the victim, striking him in the upper body.”
The sheriff’s department said the wounded officer was airlifted to a trauma center for treatment and was expected to survive his wounds.
LAPD Officer Ismael Tamayo, 44, was arrested at the scene with a firearm in his possession, KNBC reported.
Officer Tamayo was charged with attempted murder and booked into the High Desert Detention Center, according to the sheriff’s department’s press release.
The LAPD supervisor who was with the officers when the shooting happened was initially detained at the scene, but has since been released and is not facing charges, KNBC reported.
LAPD officials said in a statement that Officer Tamayo had been “relieved of his police powers pending the outcome of the criminal and administrative investigation,” the New York Daily News reported.
“The events overnight culminating in the serious injury to our off-duty officer, apparently at the hands of another member of this Department, give me great concern,” LAPD Chief Michael Moore said in the statement. “I spoke earlier this morning with San Bernardino Sheriff John McMahon, pledging our full support of their criminal investigation. I am thankful our injured officer is in stable condition and expected to survive. I am committed to determining what and how this occurred.”
The San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department said the investigation was ongoing, KNBC reported.