SHERMAN OAKS —According to authorities, the incident began around 1 a.m. with a traffic stop of a suspected drunk driver in a Mercedes vehicle traveling through the Hollenbeck area of eastern Los Angeles near Huntington Drive in Alhambra. Upon pursuit, the 42-year-old male motorist, Andrew Caprio, refused to oblige and began to flee the scene, sending officers of the Hollenbeck Police Station on a highway chase.
The vehicle was traveling westbound then crashed into a guardrail while colliding with a black BMW as it approached the Van Nuys Boulevard exit around 1:30 a.m. Caprio then exited the vehicle armed with a knife and was shot upon confrontation by one of the involved officers.
Caprio was then “taken to a nearby hospital where he died of his wounds,” stated Police Detective Gus Villanueva. According to Villanueva, one of the officers suffered a minor arm wound and was admitted into a local hospital where he was then treated and released soon after.
Due to the pursuit, all westbound highway traffic on the 101 Freeway was shut down completely between the Van Nuys Boulevard and Woodman Avenue exits for several hours. As a result, traffic back-ups increased significantly and drivers were forced to find alternative traveling routes.
The lanes remained closed until about 10 a.m. that morning when police and coroner authorities were able to attain enough information for investigative purposes.
