Bodycam video recently released by the Los Angeles Police Department shows officers breaking windows and pulling a pair of teenagers from a car as it starts to catch fire following a crash in Encino.
The solo-car crash, in which the driver crashed into a light pole, occurred around 12:15 a.m., Feb. 20 at the intersection of Ventura and Balboa boulevards. The driver was a 14-year-old girl and the front passenger was an 18-year-old woman.
A third passenger, a 16-year-old girl, was found dead in the back seat after Los Angeles city firefighters put out the fire.
A critical incident briefing released by LAPD Friday, March 8, also includes dashcam footage from an LAPD SUV and surveillance camera footage that captured the crash, in which the teenager failed to negotiate a left turn on rain-slicked roads and crashed into a light pole on the southeast corner of the intersection.
The bodycam video shows a pair of officers, who had earlier attempted to pull the car over because the driver didn’t have the lights on, attempting to talk to the occupants after catching up with the car after the crash. A passenger tells one of the officers they cannot get out of the car.
One officer cuts holes in an airbag through a cracked front passenger window, then breaks the back window with a baton to unlock and open the front passenger door. He then drags the front passenger out of the car.
A second officer then breaks the front driver’s door with a baton, pops the airbag, opens the door and drags the driver out as the flames begin to rise and reach the front of the cabin.
At the time, the officers were under the impression there were only two people inside, but after they drag the two teenagers away from the wreckage, the passenger tells one of the officers a third person was in the back seat.
The officer first approaches the car to look through the already broken back window, but because of the flames he and…
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