Deputy Held for Questioning in Shooting Death

A sheriff’s deputy was being held for questioning Friday night in the death of a man found shot inside a Capistrano Beach duplex, an Orange County district attorney’s spokesman said.

The spokesman, Deputy Dist. Atty. Wallace J. Wade, said the shooting apparently occurred while the deputy was off duty.

The names of the deputy and the victim were being withheld Friday night “until the family is notified,” Sheriff’s Lt. Richard J. Olson said.

Details of the shooting were sketchy. A statement issued jointly by the Sheriff’s Department and the district attorney’s office stated only that the incident was reported at 2:39 p.m. Friday in the 34000 block of Via Verde.

When deputies and paramedics arrived in the residential area, they found a man shot, according to the statement. The victim was treated at the scene, then “taken to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead a short time later.”

“That’s all I’ve been authorized to release,” Olson said.

Shootings in Orange County involving law officers are investigated by the district attorney’s office. Wade said late Friday that district attorney’s investigators were in the beginning stages of the investigation and that information was scarce.

He said he did not know whether the deputy had been arrested.