AWOL Marine Critically Wounded in Fight With Off-Duty Police Officer

An AWOL Marine was shot in the face and critically wounded after he fought with an off-duty Tustin police officer and the officer’s gun accidentally discharged, Tustin police said Friday.

They said Officer Alex Kiilehua, 41, a five-year veteran of the department, returned to his Myrtle Street apartment about 5:20 p.m. Thursday and noticed an intruder in the carport. Kiilehua, off duty and wearing street clothes, identified himself as a police officer and “attempted to detain the suspect,” Police Capt. Fred Wakefield said.

At that point, “the suspect assaulted the police officer. In the ensuing struggle, the officer’s off-duty weapon discharged. The bullet struck the suspect in the face,” Wakefield said.

The injured man, Marine Cpl. Solomon Sylvester McNulty, 28, was in critical condition at Western Medical Center in Santa Ana with a single bullet wound in the cheek, hospital officials said.

Wakefield said this description of the Thursday evening shooting is based on a preliminary investigation. Investigators from the Tustin Police Department and the Orange County district attorney’s office are continuing separate inquiries into the shooting and expect to do so for several months.

According to Marine Corps spokesman Cpl. Ron Martin, McNulty was stationed at the Marine Corps Air Station in El Toro but “had been in deserter status since 3 July.”

McNulty was found to be carrying an undisclosed amount of marijuana, Wakefield said, but no charges are to be filed against him until the investigations are completed. Both agencies are still seeking additional witnesses to the shooting.

Meanwhile, Officer Kiilehua has not been disciplined and will be back on duty for his next scheduled shift. Kiilehua’s beat assignment includes the apartment where he lives, and where the incident took place.

“He wanted to go back to work. There was no reason why he shouldn’t,” Wakefield said.

The evidence so far indicates the shooting was accidental, Wakefield stressed. Preliminary findings by the district attorney’s office and by Tustin police “indicate an accidental discharge of the officer’s weapon due to an assault,” Wakefield said.

Kiilehua did not work Friday, his regular day off, police Capt. Steve Foster said. The officer visited a counselor Friday as many officers do following a shooting, Foster said.

While Kiilehua could not be reached for comment, residents of the buff-colored Myrtle Street apartment complex where the officer has lived for five years described him as a quiet, soft-spoken man who would be unlikely to provoke a fight.

“He was authority, but he wasn’t really aggressive,” said apartment manager Kathleen Hunter. “Unless someone was aggressive with him, I can’t see it.”

The shooting was all the more shocking, Hunter said, because their 30-apartment complex was a quiet, relatively crime-free place. “We had Neighborhood Watch. And I think we had a candy bar stolen. That was it,” she said.

Her husband, Warren Hunter, said that he and his wife have been happy to have a police officer in the complex, especially because Kiilehua patrolled the complex as part of his beat.

Residents refrained from bringing minor problems to his attention, especially when he was off duty, but when someone’s tools were stolen or a van was broken into, they were glad he was there, Hunter said.

Kiilehua is “a real nice guy. He moved here for two reasons,” Hunter said. “Because this is his beat and because it’s quiet, because this is an area of few problems.”

He paused a moment, reflecting on Thursday’s shooting. “I guess when we have a problem, we have a good one,” Hunter said.