Earlier Monday, he shot and killed his cousin in East Los Angeles and took his car, which later rear-ended another car in the neighboring city of Whittier, Corina said.
He got out and asked those he had hit to help push his stolen car from the intersection.
Boyer and Hazel didn’t know any of those details when they answered the report of a car accident, Corina said.
Boyer was pronounced dead at a hospital. Hazel, a three-year veteran, and the suspect were hospitalized in stable condition and were expected to live.
After the shooting, a long line of police cars escorted the slain officer’s body from a hospital in Irvine to the coroner’s office. Mourners placed candles and flowers outside police headquarters.
Boyer joined the force as a dispatcher in 1989 and became a full-time officer in 1990. A divorced father who played the drums, he was “the best of the best” who was sought for advice by his colleagues and superiors, the chief said.
Boyer recently talked to the chief about retiring.
The Whittier Police Department has about 125 sworn officers who patrol Whittier and Santa Fe Springs.
The department has had two other officers killed in the line of duty — a detective in 1979 and a corporal in 1977.
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