Gunshot Triggers Traffic Accident That Injures 6 : Mishap: Paramedic is struck by bullet accidentally fired by off-duty officer in the car. Two are hospitalized after vehicle flips over.

A Gardena paramedic and a Harbor Division police officer were injured in a bizarre off-duty traffic accident early Friday when a second officer riding in a car with them accidentally shot the driver.

The injured officer and paramedic were listed in stable condition at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center after the 12:15 a.m. accident, Sheriff’s Department spokesman Sgt. Ron Spear said. The car’s four other passengers were treated for minor injuries at the scene.

Paramedic Wesley Anzai, 25, was driving his new Toyota 4-Runner eastbound on Marine Avenue when the accident took place, authorities said. Traveling with him were off-duty Officers Pete Elkins and John Duran, of the Los Angeles Police Department’s Harbor Division, and three other Gardena paramedics--Curtis Thompson, Alex Martinez and Rodney Thompson.

Spear said all the paramedics and police officers were off duty, and there was no evidence of alcohol or drugs involved in the mishap.

According to police, Duran, seated in the back seat, began showing a .38-caliber revolver to one of the other passengers. As the car approached Lemoli Avenue, the gun accidentally fired, striking Anzai in the elbow.

Anzai veered to one side, striking a parked car and a telephone pole before the car flipped onto its right side, Spear said.

The four men riding in the back were not seriously injured and were able to crawl from the wreckage. Anzai and Elkins were trapped inside the car, Spear said.

County firefighters required more than an hour to free the two men.

Both were airlifted to the medical center, where Anzai is being treated for the gunshot wound and a badly bruised hip. Elkins suffered a broken leg that will require surgery, Spear said.