Man Who Shot Intruder Won’t Face Charges

The Orange County district attorney’s office said Monday that it will not file criminal charges against a City of Orange man who surprised a burglary suspect in his living room Sept. 11 and shot the youth three times as he fled, wounding him.

The homeowner, Kevin Ralph Gull, 32, held the 16-year-old intruder at gunpoint after catching him in his condominium and telephoned police. During that phone conversation, the youth leaped out a window and ran, police said.

Gull followed him out the window and shot him three times with a .22-caliber pistol, police said.

On Monday, Gull said he was pleased by the district attorney’s decision and hoped that his life would soon return to normal.

“I would like to let this thing drop now that the district attorney has let it drop,” Gull said. “My wife would just like to forget the whole thing. I just want to start over again.”

The decision not to file charges against Gull came late Friday after investigators reviewed a tape recording of Gull’s 911 call, Deputy Dist. Atty. Jack W. Sullens said.

Sullens said Gull was “presumed to be in fear of his life” when he fired at the running suspect.

“It’s pretty clear that Mr. Gull’s actions were not motivated by malice or ill will,” Sullens said. “His actions were not unreasonable.”

On Monday evening, an anti-crime group honored Gull “for having the courage and taking the initiative in protecting his home,” said Dr. Howard Garber, a law-and-order advocate.

Garber, a retired Anaheim Hills optometrist and organizer of the Citizens Anti-Crime Task Force, presented Gull with a resolution commending his actions at a meeting of the group in Tustin.

‘Set an Example’

“This man had the courage to do what is necessary,” Garber said. “He has set an example here.”

Gull is a computer programmer who works out of his two-story condominium in east Orange. On the afternoon of the shooting, he said, he was answering his doorbell when he saw a young man in a light-colored jump suit removing the screen from his dining room window.

Gull said he went upstairs for his pistol and surprised the thin, dark-haired youth near his television and video recorder and ordered him to lie on the floor while he called police.

As Gull talked on the phone, the intruder fled through an open window. “As he was getting away, I felt I had to do something,” Gull recalled.

He fired three shots at the intruder from a large deck behind his home, striking the running youth in the side, hip and leg, police said.

The youth, whose name was withheld because he is a juvenile, drove home after the shooting, Orange police spokesman Robert Gustafson said in an earlier interview. The youth’s father drove him to Western Medical Center in Santa Ana about an hour later, where he was admitted to intensive care suffering from shock and loss of blood.

Gustafson said Monday that the youth had been released from the hospital and remains in his father’s custody. Kari Sheffield, Orange County Juvenile Court coordinator, said no charge has been filed against the youth.

The use of deadly force to stop a fleeing suspect is a controversial issue and is handled by the district attorney’s office “case by case on an individual basis,” Gustafson said.

Acting Orange Police Chief John McKelwe declined to comment on the issue.

“That’s why we submit it to the district attorney’s office, and he decides whether or not to prosecute,” McKelwe said.

Sullens, who made the decision not to prosecute, said: “People in Mr. Gull’s position must be given every reasonable doubt.

“We’re talking about a period of four seconds. He was responding to the commission of a serious felony. He was still in fear at the time the shots were fired.”

Garber said Gull was more than justified in shooting the fleeing intruder.

“We are going through a period of escalating violence, Garber said. “In this period of time, government has failed to protect us. Crime is out of control. In this period, we should be able to make some exceptions.

“When you enter someone’s property and you’re an intruder and you get shot, you’ve done something stupid. It’s no one’s fault but the intruder’s.”