Man says he was injured by deputies as he was trying to get away from dangerous pursuit
A bystander trying to get away from the end of a dangerous pursuit was reportedly injured and detained by deputies for refusing to get out of the line of fire.
The victim Adrian Cruz was sitting at a Hacienda Heights stoplight when the suspect drove down Gale Avenue and south Hacienda Boulevard.
The driver of the stolen truck bumped Cruz's sedan before a law enforcement cruiser rammed the stolen vehicle further into Cruz's car.
Cruz exited his car and walked around before going back into the driver's side door. Deputies proceeded to swarm him, take him to the ground and detain him.
"One of them smashed into my car and immediately started shooting guns," Cruz said. "It just sounded crazy, like a war zone."
A Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department spokesperson said deputies detained him because he refused to get out of the line of fire. Cruz claims he was trying to get his family out of the car and to safety.
"I got out of the car immediately. I don't want my wife and my son to be a part of that," he said. "The second I get out of the car the cops smashed me. Start socking me up, smashing me like if I was the dude that stole the car."
Cruz said the deputies placed him in cuffs and started dragging him around.
"It did not have to happen that way," he said. "I had nothing to do with it. We were just bystanders getting out of their way. Instead, they went and attacked me, brutally, in front of my family, in front of everybody. That's not right."
