S.D. Policeman Is Slain in a ‘Hellacious Fight’

One police officer was killed, another was seriously injured and a third person--a woman riding along with police--was wounded during what one police official called “a hellacious fight” in Encanto Sunday night.

The police officers and the woman were shot with one of the officers’ guns, according to one witness.

A suspect in the shootings fled in a police squad car to his home, then drove with his grandfather in another car to the downtown police station, where he turned himself in to authorities, police said.

The dead police officer was identified as Tom Riggs, 27, the brother-in-law of Timothy J. Ruopp, who died Sept. 16 from wounds suffered when he and another officer were shot while on routine patrol on the edge of Balboa Park. Ruopp’s widow is Riggs’ sister.

The second officer shot Sunday night, Donovan Jacobs, 28, was in critical, but stable, condition at Mercy Hospital. Jacobs, a six-year veteran, had a bullet wound in the neck--the bullet nicked his carotid artery--and large cuts on his face and scalp. He also had chest wall and arm injuries suffered when he was run over by the squad car as the suspect fled the scene.

The ride-along, Sara Pena-Ruiz, 30, who lived three blocks from the scene of the shooting, was in good condition with superficial bullet wounds.

“I’m disgusted,” Police Chief Bill Kolender said as he walked into Mercy Hospital Sunday night. “I’m sick about it. It’s sad sending these men and women out there. It’s very dangerous and I’m concerned that too many of them are losing their lives.”

Cmdr. Larry K. Gore said the incident began with a 5:51 p.m. call to police reporting a disturbance in the 6500 block of Brooklyn Avenue. Gore said a second call at 6:12 was made for “cover now, which means officers in need of immediate help.”

Though the reason for the disturbance was not clear Sunday night, a young witness told The Times she saw two police cars pursuing a truck east through the 6500 block of Brooklyn Avenue shortly after 6 p.m.

The witness, a 10-year-old girl whose parents requested she not be identified, was playing outside her Brooklyn Avenue home near Encanto Elementary School when the shooting took place.

“A truck was coming down Brooklyn,” the girl said. “Two police cars were chasing it. The truck stopped. A lot of guys got out and started to run. The police cars stopped. One policeman got ahold of one of the guys and started beating him with the nightstick.”

During the scuffle, the suspect grabbed the officer’s gun and shot both policemen and the woman ride-along, the girl said. Police Cmdr. Gore said, “Somehow, the suspect got possession of a gun, whether his own gun or the officer’s, I don’t know.”

According to police, the woman used a police radio to call for assistance.

“We’ve been hit!” she cried to a dispatcher. “We need help. We need help.”

By then, the suspect had commandeered one of the two patrol cars on the scene and sped west on Market Street. He stopped the car in front of a two-story home in the 800 block of 40th Street and went inside.

Leyla Sampson, a woman who lives nearby, described what she heard and saw:

“I was on the telephone in my back bedroom and I heard brakes like someone was going to hit a car,” Sampson said. “I could sense emotion outside. I could hear someone talking outside . . . He parked the car in front of my house. Actually, he ran into the house next door.”

The suspect emerged a few seconds later with his grandfather. The two then drove in another car to police headquarters downtown, parked the car and walked to the information counter. Officer Ray Beattie greeted them there.

“He (the suspect) just started saying things,” Beattie said. “He said he didn’t mean to do it.” Beattie said the older man told him, “My grandson just shot two people.”

An official police statement quoted the grandfather telling Beattie: “My grandson wants to turn himself in. He shot a police officer.”

Beattie then walked around the counter and handcuffed the suspect.

Police officers and investigators swarmed to the Encanto neighborhood after the shooting, with as many as 35 squad cars in the vicinity at one point. Attempting to piece together the chain of events, police herded more than 25 witnesses and suspects into the elementary school library, where they were interviewed one by one.

The department’s gang detail was on the scene, and reports heard over police radio frequencies indicated that police believe the incident may have begun after a dispute between two gangs.

“I know for sure there was a hellacious fight going on, and obviously the officers lost,” Gore said.

Contributing to this story were Times staff writers Kathleen H. Cooley, Ralph Frammolino, Marjorie Miller and Bill Ritter.