Paralyzed L.A. Officer Glad to Be Alive [Los Angeles Police Officer Shot June 3]

Los Angeles Times ^ | June 14, 2006 | Jill Leovy

[La Enchiladita]

Kristina Ripatti, struck by a gunman's bullet and unable to move from the chest down, says she wants to continue to be there for her family.

Los Angeles Police Officer Kristina Ripatti didn't hear the gunfire that changed her life.

She didn't feel the bullet that plunged through her chest, nicked a rib, tore through a lung and severed her spine. And she never saw the gun in the suspect's hand — the part that bothers her most, she said. Ten years of reflexively watching people's hands for weapons, and she didn't see it.

There was only an odor — a sudden, overpowering gunpowder smell bursting into her nostrils. Then she was down, dimly thinking that she wanted to go home.

The shooting that left the 33-year-old Ripatti paralyzed from the chest down underscores how suddenly and unpredictably the demands of policing can escalate into supreme sacrifice.

Ripatti, the mother of a 15-month-old daughter, left California Hospital Medical Center downtown Tuesday headed to a rehabilitation center to adapt to using a wheelchair.

Ripatti was among the highest-risk fringe of officers in the LAPD. She was one of the few female gang officers working in South Los Angeles, and sought out the kinds of confrontations that tended to produce felony arrests and gun seizures, even as they put officers at greater risk of personnel complaints and violent encounters. She was known as a stand-out "obs officer" — adept at observing slight signs of crime.

Her ambition, she said, was to have male colleagues say of her not that "she's good for a female officer," but that she was "just a good officer."

[La Enchiladita]

There have been 11 incidents since January of LAPD officers being shot at. Officer Kristina Ripatti was the only one hit.

As one commentator asks, Where is the outrage?

100 LAPD officers were present at Officer Ripatti's release from hospital to salute and honor their fellow officer, another un-sung hero.

[AbeKrieger]

It is time to treat American inner cities like we would an Iraqi terror enclave. March in, guns blazing, and get rid of the insurgents. That's what these animals are, anti-American terrorists, only they are here and prey on American citizens.

Oh, and if this were to happen, I ain't snitchin !!!!!

Those we trust to enforce the laws always pay a terrible price.

[misterrob]

Go read the threads where FR posters talk about Jack Booted Thugs and Gubmint Enforcers. They hate the cops just as much as the liberals and gang bangers do.

[DariusBane]

Where was her vest? If she was routinely working high risk areas where was her vest? It apparently hit her square in the chest.

I will never understand why cops don't wear their service vests.

[from occupied ga]

Where was her kevlar vest?

[La Enchiladita]

LAPD officers salute Kristina Ripatti, paralyzed from the chest down, as she leaves California Hospital. (Gary Friedman / LAT)

LAPD officer Kristina Ripatti smiles as her hand is held by her partner, Joe Meyer, while her daughter Jordan touches her arm. (Gary Friedman / LAT)

[La Enchiladita]

I know. I've seen the cop-haters' posts and usually they show up on these threads.

They're worthless and I'll tell them so if they show up here.

[VRing]

"They're worthless and I'll tell them so if they show up here."

You rang? When the media gives as much space to the linemen that have given all bringing civilization to the masses maybe I'll work up a tear for the cops.

[La Enchiladita]

She was wearing her vest, but by a fluke the bullet entered slightly above her left armpit, just oustide the vest, damaged her left lung and reportedly severed her spine.

Officers at Risk Despite Armor

[misterrob]

Look, you get buttheads in every profession you find starting with cops, civil servants, waiters and mechanics.

Many LEOs have proudly served in the military, they do a pretty thankless job and risk their lives to stop really bad people from doing bad things to good people. I sleep better at night knowing that so many of them try to do the right thing by me and my family.

[Utahrd]

When was the last time a Coors route driver shot up an Albertsons because he saw a Budweiser truck making a delivery there?

[misterrob]

Class act you are....

[La Enchiladita]

No one asked you to "work up a tear for the cops" or even to post here. Are you trying to compare the police with our troops? They are one and the same. Hundreds of LAPD officers are enlisted with the reserves and have served in OEF and OIF. Neither get favorable press, so making a comparison is a stretch based on some obscure beef you have.

[Darteaus94025]

YEAAH!!! It's her fault!!

[reagan_fanatic]

Probably got a speeding ticket delivering his newspapers.

[VRing]

"Are you trying to compare the police with our troops? They are one and the same."

I said linemen, as in high voltage transmission linemen. These men die at a higher rate than the police but are never mentioned, no parades, no "stop the city there's a funeral procession". Nothing. When that changes I'll care about the cops.

[La Enchiladita]

If what's his name from GA was truly interested, he would have googled the info.

There is a severe shortage of interest in actual information on FR these days ...

And way too much 'tude.

[La Enchiladita]

Your obscure post obscured your obscure beef, but thanks for the clarification. Now go away.

[VRing]

"Now go away"

OK, have a nice day.

[SJSAMPLE]

Not since the end of prohibition ;)

Kind of makes you wonder.