The city of Los Angeles is paying out $4.2 million to two women who were accidentally shot by the LAPD during the citywide manhunt for fugitive ex-cop Christopher Dorner, the Los Angeles Times reports.
Margie Carranza, 47, and her mother, Emma Hernandez, 71, were delivering the L.A. Times at 5 a.m. on Feb. 7 when they unintentionally drove down the heavily guarded street in Torrance where one of Dorner's potential targets — an LAPD captain named in Dorner's online manifesto — lived.
Cops allegedly opened fire on the two women driving a blue Toyota pickup, mistaking it for a gray Nissan Titan that Dorner had reportedly been driving.
Carranza, who was driving, escaped with only cuts on her hands, while her mother, sitting in the backseat, was hit twice in the back, according to the L.A. Times. One of the bullets pierced Hernandez's upper back, exited her chest, and barely missed her heart.
"Margie is screaming 'we are being shot at, we are being shot at!'" Glen Jonas, their lawyer, told the Times. "Then she screamed out, 'I am just the newspaper woman, I am the newspaper woman!'"
Neither suffered life-threatening injuries, and both recovered.
LAPD chief Charlie Beck called the incident a "tragic misinterpretation" by officers working under a high level of stress. He personally apologized to the mother and daughter a few days after the shooting and launched an investigation into the officers' conduct, which is ongoing.
SEE ALSO: REPORT: A Tiny 71-Year-Old Woman Was Shot Twice In The Back During The LAPD's Manhunt
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