Former Policeman Lives to Tell About It After Being Shot in Jewelry Store Heist

A former police officer, caught in the middle of a $200,000 jewelry heist in Santa Ana, was shot in the chest Thursday as he kneeled on the floor with his hands above his head, police said.

Jay F. Parker, 46, said later from a hospital bed at Western Medical Center in Santa Ana that he thought he would die after rolling over and seeing the blood pouring from just below his right shoulder.

“I was just waiting for the blanket to cover me up,” he said. Parker was reported in good condition at Western Medical Center late Thursday and was expected to be released today.

It happened at 10:15 a.m., just after the South Coast Jewelry Mart at Bristol Street and Sunflower Avenue opened. Two men, in their 20s or late teens, entered the store carrying pistols, and ordered two employees and Parker, the only customer, onto the floor. One of the gunmen forced a third employee to open the store safe, Santa Ana Police Sgt. Collie Provence said.

The other gunman turned to Parker and shot him, according to the victim.

Three other men followed with sledgehammers, smashing the glass display cases and making off with more than $200,000 in gold and diamond jewelry, including about $10,000 worth of gold that Parker had brought in to be weighed, police said.

The robbery took 60 seconds, said police spokeswoman Maureen Thomas.

“I’m pretty hurt,” said Parker, who described himself as a retired police officer who had spent eight years on forces in the Orlando, Fla., and Palm Springs areas. “I mean the guy shot me, and I didn’t do nothing.”

Police said the five robbers abandoned their brown, paneled station wagon a few blocks away and fled in another car. The station wagon was reported stolen Wednesday in Los Angeles County.

Provence said police are linking the smash-and-grab-style holdup with several other robberies over the past year in Orange and Los Angeles counties. Gunmen injured a clerk and a customer in an almost identical assault June 16 on a Costa Mesa jewelry store. A similar attack a month before left a La Habra jewelry store owner with a gunshot wound in the chest.

The bullet that hit Parker tore through the skin and muscle, he said, but caused what was considered only a flesh wound.

Despite his police experience, it was the first time he had been shot at, he said, adding that the wound had humbled him.

“I felt I had the strength to get up and tackle the guy big time,” he said. “But I just stayed down and played dead.”

The robbers began walking from the store and then ran, said a witness who works in the same area.

She described the assailants as black, “kind of poor looking,” with unkempt hair, old clothes and carrying large plastic bags. She said they had approached the store appearing suspiciously nervous. When they left, one ran ahead and started the car, and the others jumped in while it was pulling away.

Parker said he moved to Santa Ana four years ago from the Palm Springs area after coming into a $90,000 inheritance. But the money had run out, he said. He recently sold some of the gold he had been collecting over the past four years, he said.

Thursday, he had gone to get the exact value of the rest. He said he had an interview later in the day for an accounting job at the Balboa Bay Club.

“I guess I’m not going to make it,” he said from his hospital bed.

Three weeks ago, he said, his car was hit in the same area of Bristol Street by another driver who fled the scene. In that case, Parker said, he apprehended the culprit himself and held him until the police arrived.