Police Say Slain Man Struck Them

A 53-year-old man who was shot and killed by Fountain Valley police Wednesday had wrestled a night stick from one of the officers and attacked them with it, police said Thursday.

Harry Owen Clark was shot five to six times in the chest, arm and thigh, Fountain Valley Police Lt. Rod Gillman said.

“It’s probably what it took to stop him,” Gillman said of the gunshots. Neighbors described Clark as “a big man,” about 6 feet, 4 inches tall and weighing 260 pounds.

Officers went to the house in the 9300 block of Daisy Avenue twice on Wednesday in response to owner Norma Irene Clark’s calls that she and Clark, her former brother-in-law and live-in companion of 10 years, had been arguing. Police said the woman told them that Harry Clark was trying to kick down the door to her home.

“It sounded like he was in pretty poor temperment when the officers got there,” Gillman said, adding that the police report indicated Harry Clark had been under the influence of alcohol at the time of the incident.

The struggle began when Clark tried to keep the officers out, Gillman said. Clark reportedly was beating both the officers with the night stick when they shot him. The arm of one officer was injured, though not broken, by one of the blows, Gillman said.

The officers’ names were withheld pending an internal investigation. The district attorney is also investigating the case, Gillman said. The incident is the forth fatal shooting by Orange County police officers this year.

Norma Clark, 48, standing in the bloodstained courtyard outside her front door Thursday, confirmed that the two had argued Wednesday. But she added that she is “unhappy with what happened.”

Clark said she was not present when the shooting occurred and that she is still waiting to read the police report on the incident. “I was down the street at a neighbor’s house when it happened,” she said.

While she spoke calmly about the death of her companion, she said she has had her emotional “ups and downs” since the shooting Wednesday afternoon.

Clark said her boyfriend, who described himself as a driller on his voter registration form, was disabled and had not worked for some time.

Norma Clark’s daughter, Kim Allen, who had come to comfort her mother, said that family members were upset. She confirmed that Harry Clark and her mother had been arguing Wednesday. But Allen said her mother never imagined that officers would shoot him.

“It’s something that should not have happened,” Allen said. “All she wanted was to have some peace.”