West Hills : Truck Driver Arrested After Officer Shot

Alan Heinze, police say, refused to turn off his radio. He wouldn’t even turn off his ignition. And when West Valley Police Officer Jorge Morales put his arm inside the pickup truck early Monday morning to turn off the engine and arrest Heinze, he took off, dragging Morales and leading to the year’s first officer-involved shooting in the West Valley.

Both Morales and his partner, Officer Geoffrey Levey, shot Heinze in the arms and arrested him a short time later on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon on a police officer.

Morales suffered minor injuries to his wrist; Heinze, 49, suffered gunshot wounds to his arms and was taken to the County-USC Medical Center jail ward.

Heinze apparently became abusive and tried to strike Levey when the officers, responding to a call about a loud radio creating a disturbance in the 8400 block of Valley Circle Boulevard in West Hills, approached him. When Morales put his arm through the driver’s side window, Heinze drove off.

Police said Levey shot out the window so his partner could free his arm. At about the same time, Morales also fired shots into the pickup.

The officers followed Heinze a short distance and then arrested him after he drove into a cul-de-sac, police said. The incident is being investigated by the West Valley Division, and the LAPD’s Robbery Homicide Division is handling the officer-involved shooting.