2 Santa Ana Officers Quit Amid Probe of Gunfire

Two Santa Ana police officers who were under investigation for allegedly gathering with five other officers atop a parking structure and firing shots through the windows of a county supervisor’s office have resigned, a police spokesman said Thursday.

Police Lt. Robert Chavez said the Santa Ana Police Department could not confirm whether the officers’ resignations were related to an internal investigation, “because the investigation is still pending.”

He refused to release the names of the two officers, or any of the names of the other five who allegedly gathered after work atop an Orange County Transit District parking structure June 18, and fired shots into Supervisor Roger Stanton’s office.

No one was injured in the early morning incident, although two bullets lodged high in a wall above a door frame in Stanton’s office. The building was closed to the public at the time, but was occupied by janitors.

A transit district security guard who reported hearing at least four shots notified police, district officials said.

Impromptu Celebration

Only five of the officers actually fired guns during what was described as an impromptu celebration to mark the end of a probationary period for some rookie officers, sources said.

Police have begun criminal and internal investigations that could result in charges being filed against the officers or disciplinary action. Santa Ana Deputy Police Chief Eugene Hansen said that results should be available in two weeks.

Donald Blankenship, Santa Ana Police Benevolent Assn. president, said that the incident was “one of those ‘choir practice’ type of things,” referring to the off-duty activities of police officers portrayed in “The Choir Boys,” a police novel by Joseph Wambaugh.

He also said the incident was “stupid.” Blankenship said none of the officers involved were of supervising rank.

The officers, who had worked the previous swing shift and would have been off duty by 12:30 a.m., were “working off a little steam,” a law enforcement official said.

However, City Councilman P. Lee Johnson expressed anger that the incident had yet to be reported to any council member. Johnson asked City Manager David Ream on Wednesday to give the council an update on the situation.

Johnson, who has been a criminalist for the Santa Ana Police Department and the Orange County Sheriff’s Department, said the situation has left him “disappointed.”

“I want to give them the benefit of the doubt pending the results of the investigation, but it’s not the kind of conduct we expect from our police officers,” he said.