CHP Officers Shoot Man Pointing Handgun Replica

A man who witnesses said was either “drunk or crazy” was shot twice and wounded by California Highway Patrol officers Sunday near a Laguna Hills Mall restaurant after he allegedly pointed a replica of a .45-caliber handgun at passers-by and officers, a CHP spokesman said.

The man, identified only as a Latino in his early 20s, repeatedly jumped from behind cars and pointed what seemed to be a World War II-vintage .45-caliber automatic at two officers, despite warnings in both English and Spanish, Officer Ken Daily said.

He was taken to Mission Community Hospital in Mission Viejo, where he was in serious but stable condition with two gunshot wounds, one in the right arm and one in the left chest, Daily said.

The CHP later learned the man was holding a pellet gun, Daily said. Police did not know if the gun was loaded, he added.

Witnesses inside the restaurant confirmed that the man had threatened others at a mall department store and acted erratically as if “he was drunk,” said Joel Hill, restaurant manager.

“He kept jumping up and down like a monkey. He was just crazed,” Hill said.

The restaurant is located on the corner of El Toro Road, west of Avenida de la Carlota.

Other witnesses told police that the man was barely able to walk and was seen banging the pellet gun against a tree.

Hill, a night manager who came to work about 3:20 p.m., said he was unlocking a rear gate when the unidentified man ran by and ignored the officers’ orders to stop.

“It was a standoff with the officers. They kept telling him to put it down. He kept pointing it right at them, and jumping from in back of a BMW that was nearby,” Hill said.

Police said the man ignored the warnings and when he allegedly pointed the weapon at one of two officers, the officer fired two shots but apparently missed.

Daily said the man then ducked below some bushes as the two officers moved to a better vantage point.

“The man again crouched in a shooting position and pointed the gun towards the officer. The officer fired two more times and the man dropped down and they subdued him.”

The officers were not injured.

No motive was known for the man’s behavior.

Ironically, recent national media coverage has focused on the danger of replica weapons, primarily, Daily said, “because you cannot tell the difference between them and the real thing.”

Daily is not alone in his concern.

Los Angeles police officials expressed dismay last April at toy gun manufacturers after police disarmed a 14-year-old youth who had climbed atop a downtown office building with his fully automatic “Water Warrior” toy rifle.

Police had received a call from a nearby worker who said someone was shooting at cars on a freeway.

The Anaheim City Council recently passed an ordinance making it illegal to point a weapon, including a replica of a handgun, menacingly at another person.