After their pickup truck was riddled with bullets in a case of mistaken identity during a frenzied manhunt, two newspaper delivery women will be getting a new truck courtesy of the Los Angeles Police Department, LAPD Cmdr. Andrew Smith said.
Chief Charlie Beck met with the women in their Torrance home Saturday to apologize and tell them he had arranged for someone to donate a new pickup truck, Smith said. The truck will be donated early this week.
Officers opened fire on Margie Carranza and her 71-year-old mother, Emma Hernandez, on Thursday while the pair was delivering the Los Angeles Times on Redbeam Avenue in Torrance.
Hernandez suffered two bullet wounds to the back. She was released from the intensive care unit and was recovering at home Saturday, her attorney Glen T. Jonas told NBC4. Carranza, 47, had minor injuries related to shattered glass and a wounded finger.
Now placed on paid administrative leave, the officers were part of a detail dispatched Thursday morning to protect an officer who was threatened in an online manifesto written by fired LAPD Officer Christopher Dorner, police said.
The women were driving a dark-colored pickup truck with its lights off when they slowly approached the officer’s home. Apparently thinking Dorner was inside, police opened fire on the truck – piercing the tailgate and back windshield with more than 15 bullets.
Beck called the shooting a case of mistaken identity. Dorner stands 6 feet tall and weighs 270 pounds.
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Jonas said he was shocked by the shooting. He said neither the size of the women nor the blue Toyota Tundra truck they were in matched the description of Dorner's Nissan Titan.
"There were two women there. They are not black. They are not large. They were not in a car that matched. No danger was presented to the officers," Jonas told NBC4 on Friday. "It was such a mismatched identification."
About two blocks away and 25 minutes later, skittish police officers opened fire on a 38-year-old white male driving a dark-colored pickup truck. The man was nearly shot, but escaped unharmed.
Dorner is suspected of killing an LAPD captain’s daughter, her fiancé, and a Riverside police officer in an alleged revenge-motivated shooting spree. In a 11,400-word document he published online, Dorner said the attacks were retaliation for his 2008 termination from the force.
On Saturday, LAPD announced the department will reopen the case of Dorner’s firing.
