By City News Service
LYNWOOD (CNS) - An off-duty Hawthorne Police Department sergeant was killed today in a motorcycle crash on the eastbound Glenn Anderson (105)Freeway in Lynwood, the California Highway Patrol reported.
The collision occurred at 5:26 p.m. on the freeway west of Long BeachBoulevard, according to California Highway Patrol Officer Tatiana Sauquillo.
The victim was identified in broadcast reports as 42-year-old Sgt. Leonard Luna. Luna was on his personal motorcycle, on his way to a service shop topick up his service bike, according to KCAL9, which reported that Luna was a 10-year department veteran.
Rush-hour traffic was snarled on the freeway with most lanes blocked asthe investigation continued.
Hawthorne police public information officer Lt. Scott Swain told KCAL9 members of the department, which has been drawing intense criticism since an officer killed a Rottweiler in a videotaped shooting on June 30, are taking Luna's death hard.
"They're visibly shaken,'' Swain told KCAL9. "We just went through this two years ago with Officer Andrew Garton who was also killed on a police motorcycle. It almost feels like we were just getting back some normalcy from that and then this happened.''
In May 2011, Garton, 44, who had been on the force for 7 1/2 years, was killed in a collision with an El Segundo motorcycle officer on Hawthorne Boulevard while escorting a funeral procession for a Manhattan Beach police officer who died of cancer.
Hawthorne Police Chief Robert Fager said at the time that Garton was the first officer killed in the line of duty in the department's 89-year history.
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