OFFICER HURT IN TUNNEL AMBUSH; POLICE SWEEP AREA IN MANHUNT TWO MEN SOUGHT IN BOTTLE, KNIFE ATTACK ON SERGEANT.

Byline: DANA BARTHOLOMEW Staff Writer

WOODLAND HILLS -- A Los Angeles police sergeant was injured Saturday when two men attacked him with a bottle and a knife after he went to help one of the men, police said.

The officer was jumped about 2 p.m. Saturday after a man flagged him down to report someone lying in a pedestrian tunnel at the Ventura Freeway and Sale Street, said Michel Moore, deputy chief of Valley Operations.

Officials said that when the West Valley Division sergeant entered the tunnel, he was struck from behind by a man believed to have been wielding a bottle.

The man who had been lying on the ground then lunged at the officer with a knife, police said.

The officer fired at one of the assailants; police said the sergeant believes the man was hit.

The sergeant, whose identity was not released, was taken to West Valley Hospital, where he was reported in stable condition with lacerations to his head.

The attack launched a door-to-door search of the area by scores of law enforcement officers from the Los Angeles Police Department's metro and K-9 units and the California Highway Patrol.

Police have asked for the public's help in locating the two men, who fled after the attack.

One suspect was described as a white male, 30 to 35 years old, with short hair and dark clothes.

The other -- a white male, 30 to 35 years old with brown hair, 5-foot-10 to 6 feet tall, weighing 160 to 170 pounds, wearing a gray shirt and blue jeans -- fled north down Sale Street in a possibly gray 1980s Toyota Previa minivan.

``We believe this to have been an unprovoked attack on one of our sergeants,'' police Chief William Bratton said at the scene. ``We're seeking the public's help in reporting any suspicious activity.''

The attack was one of an increasing number on Los Angeles police officers. This year, three other LAPD officers also have been wounded in attacks, according to police.

Forty officers were involved in shootings, which police say is an indicator of life-and-death threats.

Shortly after the Saturday attack, two dozen Metro Unit Division cars rolled down Ventura Boulevard with sirens blaring.

The Metro Unit, which includes the S.W.A.T. team, patrolled Woodland Hills in riot gear, cruising the neighborhoods with shotguns while seated two abreast in open police cruiser trunks.

Residents and tourists were aghast at the attack on a Los Angeles law enforcement officer.

``Awful,'' said Robert Mirabilio, 44, of Westlake Village, who stood outside a perimeter buzzing with police. ``I can't believe that.

``This is just crazy.''

``It's completely meaningless,'' said Jonathan Moskow, 33, of San Francisco, who had just eaten lunch with his grandmother up the street.

``I'm grateful the cops are doing all they can to find these guys.''

dana.bartholomew(at)dailynews.com

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