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The State - News from Sept. 5, 1988

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A Newport Beach police officer shot and critically wounded a 26-year-old man near the Balboa Pier when the officer believed the man was carrying a sawed-off shotgun, police reported. However, the victim, Sundaga Bryant, 26, of Orange, was only carrying a portable radio, police said. Bryant, who immigrated to the United States from the West African nation of Liberia about eight years ago, was in critical condition at Fountain Valley Regional Hospital with gunshot wounds in his arms and abdomen. Newport Beach police spokesman Bob Oakley said police spotted Bryant about 2:50 a.m. as they were seeking a man reportedly carrying a shotgun on the beach. An unidentified officer shot once when Bryant allegedly “spun quickly” toward the officer while “holding a long black object” that later turned out to be a portable radio, said Oakley. Minutes later police found a 14-year-old boy on the beach who was carrying a paint-pellet gun that resembles a sawed-off shotgun, Oakely said. The boy, who was questioned and released to his parents, was not with Bryant.

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