CLAUDIA APOLINAR DEFINES THE TRUE MEANING OF HERO

EXCLUSIVE: Hero LA deputy mom, 31, who saved her partner's life after they were both ambushed in Compton by a black gunman is a former librarian who only graduated from the Police Academy last year 

By Josh Boswell and Alan Butterfield

Daily Mail
September 15, 2020

One of the Los Angeles police officers gunned down in cold blood on Saturday is a 31-year-old former librarian and mother who graduated from the Los Angeles Police Academy only last year.

DailyMail.com spoke to Claudia Apolinar’s 65-year-old father Adolfo who confirmed she was in a stable condition as he held a bedside vigil for her in hospital.

‘I’m here with her right now,’ he said in Spanish, adding that an LA Sheriff’s Department deputy was standing guard outside the hospital room.

Claudia and her 24-year-old male colleague were sitting in their patrol vehicle when a man ambushed them and shot them at point blank range on Saturday night.

Despite taking multiple bullets – one to the face and several to her upper torso – Claudia, 31, managed to get her partner to safety, apply a tourniquet and radio for help.

A photo of the aftermath of the attack shows the mother of a six-year-old child covered in blood, giving medical help to her injured partner. 

The LA Sheriff’s Department is offering $100,000 for information leading to the arrest of the shooter, who is still at large.

Lead investigating officer Lt Brandon Dean told DailyMail.com that both Claudia and her 24-year-old partner are in stable condition in hospital.

‘By the grace of God they’re both going to pull through. They’re obviously pretty injured and it’s going to be life-altering but they’re in stable condition,’ he said.

The lieutenant praised the two deputies’ ‘will to survive, their will to protect each other, their will to protect the public.’  

‘They didn’t give up, they didn’t cower down,’ he said. ‘They got out and took care of each other, took cover, made sure it wasn’t an active shooter situation. You’ve got to praise them for their courage and ability to fight for their lives and everybody else’s lives.

‘It’s an extreme situation. She was shot in the face, shot in the upper torso several times. To have the wherewithal to get yourself out of the vehicle and the line of fire in case it continues, but then to take care of your partner, initiate radio traffic make sure the civilians in the area are safe, it shows a lot about her courage and intestinal fortitude.’

Local government pay records show Claudia was a rookie officer. She worked as an aide in LA county libraries from 2011, and signed up to the Sheriff’s Department in 2017.

The ambush may have been a revenge attack against officers for recent police shootings against black men in LA, according to one report.  

Fox News reporter William la Jeunesse said Monday: 'Los Angeles police will not say this publicly - but some believe this ambush was retaliation for some recent police shootings of black suspects in LA.' 

On August 31 black man Dijon Kizzee was shot and killed by Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies after he was stopped for a traffic violation while riding a bike. 

At the beginning of this month the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors also voted to ask the coroner to conduct an inquest into the fatal deputy shooting of 18-year-old Andres Guardado on June 18.   

Investigators are still working to determine the motive for the shooting, which they said occurred 'without warning or provocation'.  

Harrowing dispatch call reveals a shaky voice called in the shooting, muttering: '998 Compton Pax.' Recognizing the code for a deputy-involved shooting, a dispatcher asks: 'Just happened?' The voice replies, almost unintelligibly,  'Compton Pax, deputies down. Compton Pax 998.'  

The suspect is described as a black male between 28 and 30 years old. He was wearing dark clothing at the time of the shooting and was last seen in a black four-door sedan.   

Earlier video released by cops showed the suspect approaching an LACSD vehicle parked outside the Metro Blue Line station and opening fire before he fled on foot.   

Moments after the gunman runs away, the passenger door of the patrol car opens and a deputy stumbles out, pressing a hand to their head.

The driver's side door opens soon after.  

Authorities said that the deputies, who both graduated from the police academy 14 months ago, each sustained multiple gunshot wounds. 

'That was a cowardly act,' Sheriff Villanueva said at a press conference. 'The two deputies were doing their job, minding their own business, watching out for the safety of the people on the train.  

'Seeing somebody just walk up and start shooting on them. It pisses me off. It dismays me at the same time. There's no pretty way to say it.'  

In response to the shootings, Lynwood city manager Jose Ometeotl, posted an image with the words 'chickens come home to roost' accompanied by a photo of Malcolm X. 

In 1963, Malcolm X used the phrase to describe John F Kennedy's assassination in response to what he said was the president's lack of action against violence.

Ometeotl then used the phrase to describe the Compton cops, saying that the neighborhood had been 'plagued by deputy gangs that inflict fear and violence in the community'. 

'These deputies murdered, framed and stole from the community just because they could,' he said. 

'Good deputies never turned on bad deputies for fear of retaliation and when caught most of these bad deputies kept their jobs and continued on their criminal career.' 

After he posted the comment on Instagram, Ometeotl appeared to apologize, saying: 'The shooting of anyone is a wholly unacceptable occurrence in society. I do not condone the type of violence seen in the shooting of the deputies yesterday in Compton.'   

On Monday Villanueva appealed to LA Lakers basketball star LeBron James - an outspoken activist and supporter of Black Lives Matter - to match the reward money.

The LA board of supervisors offered $100,000, and an additional $75,000 was donated by two private individuals. 

'This challenge is to Lebron James. I want you to match that and double that reward,' Villanueva said, speaking on KABC Radio, on the John Phillips Show. 

LAPD Chief Michael Moore had tweeted: 'Tonight we pray for these two guardians to survive. I recognize and acknowledge we live in troubled times. But we must as a community work thru our differences while loudly and resoundly condemn violence. Blessed are the Peacemakers.'  

But on Sunday evening a video emerged showing a bystander mocking the attack on the officers as a large convoy of patrol cars raced to the scene. 

'Compton. Nigger just aired the police out,' the unidentified narrator says with a smile. 'That's crazy. Damn. It goes down in Compton.'  

'It's going up. Somebody bust on their ass. Somebody bust on the police. Two sheriffs shot in the face. Two sheriffs shot in the face - they tripping. 

'Somebody just ran up on the corner and bust on their ass, right through the window'. He then concludes, grinning: 'It's a wrap.' 

And footage said to have been taken outside St. Francis Medical Center in Lynwood on Saturday night shows as one protester yells: 'I want to deliver a message to the family of the pigs, I hope they fucking die.' The protesters had been connected to the Black Lives Matter movement on Twitter but that has not been officially confirmed. 

Another demonstrator tells police: 'Y'all gonna die one by one. This ain't gonna stop.' 

On Sunday the LA county sheriffs office tweeted: 'To the protesters blocking the entrance & exit of the HOSPITAL EMERGENCY ROOM yelling 'We hope they die' referring to 2 LA Sheriff's ambushed today in #Compton: DO NOT BLOCK EMERGENCY ENTRIES & EXITS TO THE HOSPITAL. 

'People's lives are at stake when ambulances can't get through.' 

Donald Trump on Sunday said the man who opened fire should face a 'fast trial death penalty' if the deputies die. 

Speaking at a rally in Nevada on Sunday night, he said: 'If you murder a police officer, you should receive the death penalty.'

Joe Biden said: 'This cold-blooded shooting is unconscionable and the perpetrator must be brought to justice. Violence of any kind is wrong; those who commit it should be caught and punished. Jill and I are keeping the deputies and their loved ones in our hearts and praying for a full recovery.' 

But the president of a Massachusetts chapter of the NAACP sparked outrage by declaring that there is 'no such thing as blue lives'. 

Bishop Talbert Swan, a Pentecostal preacher from Springfield, Massachusetts, tweeted: 'There's no such thing as BLUE LIVES...' he tweeted. 'Stop comparing your JOB with my LIFE... Your CAREER is a choice, my BLACKNESS isn't. #BlackLivesMatter #BlueLivesMatter'.