LOS ANGELES _ Two boys were killed and their mother was critically injured Thursday night when they were struck by a Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department vehicle that crashed while racing to investigate a shooting, authorities said.
The three-car crash occurred about 7:30 p.m. on South Indiana Street in Boyle Heights. The impact thrust the sheriff's vehicle onto the sidewalk, where it slammed into the mother and her two children, said Officer Drake Madison, an LAPD spokesman.
The boys' older brother, Luis Hernandez, identified them as 7-year-old Jose Luis and 9-year-old Marcos.
"I got the call and I didn't believe it," he said, eyes watering as he spoke to reporters Friday morning. "I just didn't believe it."
A security video obtained by the Los Angeles Times from the nearby Green Mill Liquor Store shows the sheriff's SUV driving on the sidewalk after it had struck at least two pedestrians.
In the eight-second video clip, the vehicle enters the frame with its emergency lights on. A trash can and at least one person are seen bouncing off the front of the car and the person rolling onto the sidewalk.
Because the video has no audio, it's unclear if the cruiser's siren was on, though a witness at the scene said he heard no warning sounds before the crash.
Hector Lopez was about to step out of La Familia Bargain, a store located north of Indiana Street and Whittier Boulevard, when he heard a vehicle speed up. Within seconds he heard the crash and saw something fly through the air, possibly a bumper from one of the vehicles.
Images after the crash show the crumpled corner of the SUV, its right front tire folded under its mangled frame.
One of the boys died at the scene and the other at a hospital, Madison said. Their mother remains in critical condition, he said.
The initial collision involved the sheriff's vehicle and a second car, according to Madison. The second car then hit a third car, "causing injury to two additional adult pedestrians in the crosswalk," he said.
In total, seven people were transported to hospitals, Madison said, including three pedestrians, two deputies and at least one occupant of one of the other cars.
It was not clear how the initial collision happened, and Madison could not say how fast either car was traveling.
The wreck is being investigated by the Los Angeles Police Department's Multi-Discipline Collision Investigation Team, according to an LAPD release.
The deputies were responding to a report of a shooting that resulted in one injury, according to L.A. County Sheriff's spokeswoman Nicole Nishida, who said it was too early to say exactly what led to the fatal crash.
In a statement, the Sheriff's Department expressed its "deepest condolences to the families and all those affected by this tragic accident."
"The LASD and its personnel are heavily impacted any time an incident involving our response to an emergency, or efforts to help others in need, results in injury or the loss of life," the statement read.
Authorities have not determined who was at fault. But some already blamed the Sheriff's Department.
"You're supposed to turn on your lights, sirens and check before taking off," Lopez said.
The drivers of the two other vehicles remained at the scene, authorities said. They were not injured.
Hernandez, the boys' older brother, knelt and lit a white candle as he spoke to reporters at the scene of the crash Friday morning. Flowers had been placed on the sidewalk in memory of his brothers, and a vigil was scheduled for Saturday afternoon.
He identified the boys' mother as Veronica Solis and said she still doesn't know that her children are dead. Relatives said the woman and her two boys were returning home from a school in South L.A. when the crash occurred.
Araceli Cortez, Hernandez's mother, said she was at home with her son when he got a phone call informing him of what had happened.
"He started crying immediately and I asked him what was wrong and he said, 'My little brothers were hit by a car,'" Cortez said.
The youngest had died at the scene, Cortez's son told her.
"We drove to the hospital and the mother was in serious condition and the oldest boy was in surgery, but unfortunately he died," she said. "We all started screaming from the pain."
The collision occurred less than a week after an 11-year-old girl was struck and killed on a sidewalk about a mile from the scene of Thursday night's crash in Boyle Heights.
The driver in that incident, Jose Louis Perez, was booked on suspicion of vehicular manslaughter, according to the LAPD.
Perez was heading west on Whittier Boulevard near Marietta Street when he crossed into eastbound lanes and crashed into two parked cars, police said.
The impact thrust one of the cars onto the sidewalk, where it struck four pedestrians next to a taco stand. Elektra Yepez died of her injuries. The other victims were expected to survive.
Earlier this year, the county paid $4 million to settle a wrongful death suit over a 2013 crash in which a deputy failed to turn on his lights and sirens while answering a call in Palmdale.
The deputy, Kamal Jannah, was not responding to an emergency but was going 83 miles per hour when he barreled through an intersection and struck a vehicle in which Sara Paynter and Robert Delgadillo, a recently engaged couple, were riding. Both were ejected and died at the scene.
Jannah was not criminally charged, but he is longer employed by the Sheriff's Department.
