3 Officers Placed on Leave After Shooting Episode

Three Santa Ana police officers under investigation for firing shots that broke windows at an Orange County supervisor’s office have been placed on administrative leave and notified that they may be fired, sources close to the investigation said Tuesday.

Seven officers are accused of being involved in the incident at 3 a.m. June 18, but only five are believed to have fired shots. Those five include the three placed on leave and two who already have resigned from the force.

Police Chief Raymond Davis would not say Tuesday whether any of the officers is facing termination. Nor would he or his deputies discuss the results of the department’s internal investigation of the incident.

No Elaboration

They referred questions to police press officers, who would not elaborate on a short statement that said:

“The Santa Ana Police Department disciplinary process is moving forward and officers have been notified of the department’s intended action. They have four days to ask for a due-process hearing. No decision has been announced by the district attorney’s office on the pending criminal charges.”

The shooting incident began as a type of impromptu celebration on top of an Orange County Transit District parking structure by several officers who had worked a swing shift ending at 12:30 a.m. The celebration, in downtown Santa Ana, marked the end of a probationary period for some rookie officers, according to sources who asked not to be named.

‘Choir Practice’

“From what I know, it was a ‘choir practice’ type of thing,” said Donald Blankenship, president of the Santa Ana Police Officers Benevolent Assn., referring to off-duty activities of police officers portrayed in a novel by ex-policeman Joseph Wambaugh called “The Choir Boys.”

Two of the bullets fired from the parking garage broke windows and lodged in a wall of an office used by an aide to Supervisor Roger Stanton.

No one was in Stanton’s offices at the time, and no one was injured.

Stanton’s offices are on the fifth floor of the Orange County Hall of Administration and are about level with the top of the parking structure, which is frequently the only parking available when swing-shift officers arrive for work.

Santa Ana City Council members expressed anger late last month because the incident had not been reported to them until six weeks after it occurred.

Two of the off-duty officers who allegedly fired shots, James Bland and Scott Zimmerman, resigned after the incident, according to sources.

Notices of disciplinary action like those received by the three officers under investigation are intended to alert officers that they are facing hearings. Until hearings are held, the officers remain on paid leave, Blankenship said.