[KevinP73]

Not suitable for Penthouse but true none the less.

It was a Saturday October 5, 1983. I was in the market for a street bike and decided to run up to the Sunland/Tujunga area to see what Foothill Suzuki had to offer. I lived in North Hollywood at the time so going up Sunland Blvd thru Shadow Hills was the most direct path. On my way up Sunland Blvd I noticed a couple bike cops sitting in the shade off the other side of the street. Not concerned because I wasn't speeding or in their line of sight I went on to the Suzuki dealer and looked about.

Returning a little while later and remembering where I had seen them I was being sure to stay within the posted limit as I went back downhill on Sunland. I pulled up to the traffic light at La Canada Way in the right hand lane behind a Baja bug and a motorcycle (like a dirt bike) on the left. I couldn't tell who was driving the bug but the bike rider was clearly engaged in conversation with them. Nothing hostile. At the time I kinda had the impression he was trying to entice the bug driver to a race. When the light turned green they both took off.......quickly. Knowing what lay ahead I proceeded casually. Sunland Blvd, if you don't know the road is a series of relatively long straight stretches with a few gentle turns about a mile apart. The turns aren't sharp but acute enough to prevent you from seeing fully around the bend. It's perfect speed trap territory because as soon as you round the bend you're caught. Your looking straight on to the cop who's about to write you a ticket.

As I rounded the first bend in the road just disappearing around the second bend was the bug and the bike with a motorcycle cop in pursuit. They rounded the next bend in the road and were out of my sight. It couldn't have been more than 90 seconds maybe two minutes at the most I rounded the bend I had just watched them disappear around. Broadside in the street was a different VW bug, papers and debris were blowing everywhere, the officers bike had impacted the drivers side of this car as it pulled out of a side street. The officer himself was on the opposite side of the street about ten yards further down directly in front of another car traveling in the opposite direction. A woman had jumped out of the car that had been coming the other direction and the first I became aware of her she was coming around the backside of the VW and making contact with the driver who was visibly shaken and disoriented. I stopped in the middle of the road and ran towards the officer. I immediately felt for a pulse in his neck and there was nothing. I couldn't see any signs that he was breathing so I pulled down on his chin to open his mouth. I knew to check for his tongue and it was right there, but still no breathing and I could see the color draining from his face. I was startled as the woman I had seen moments before by the other car ran into me from the back as she reached over me and took his revolver and grabbed his radio. I had no idea what she was doing but she ran past us, dropped the revolver into her car and then started calling on the radio she had just liberated from the officer. I had no way of knowing at the time but she turned out to be an off duty officer herself. Kind of rare back in 1983.

I turned my attention back to the officer and it struck me that I had no idea what else I could do to help him. I knelt there on the pavement and watched the blood drain from his face. It would take a day to describe how things went after that. Before I knew it I was sitting on the curb explaining myself to more cops than I had ever imagined I'd be surrounded by. It was the first time in my life I had seen another man die, and he was close enough to touch. I don't know what emotion describes a moment like that.

I now live in the Sunland/Tujunga area. I pass this spot every day on my to work and home again. Every day I wonder if there was anything I could have done to save him.

Officer Jack Evans L.A.P.D. traffic EOW October 5, 1983.
May he rest in Peace