Placentia Officer Is Shot; Assailant Dies in Gunfight : Girlfriend Calls Police in Threats

A police officer in Placentia was shot and wounded outside a bar by a woman’s outraged boyfriend who was later chased down by police and killed in a gun battle, authorities said this morning.

The 32-year-old officer, whose name was being withheld, was in stable condition at Western Medical Center in Santa Ana after three hours of surgery for a wound in the abdomen.

Half-Hour Standoff

Police said the Buena Park man suspected of shooting the officer late Thursday night was killed after a half-hour standoff with about a dozen officers from the Placentia and Anaheim police forces in a vacant lot at Van Buren Street and Orangethorpe Avenue.

Sgt. Jay Fricke, a Placentia police spokesman, said the man, who also was not identified pending notification of his relatives, was killed by officers after he fired shots at them shortly before midnight.

“We’re not sure how many shots were fired off at the second shoot-out,” Fricke said. “One officer estimated at least two gunshots were fired by the suspect” before officers responded.

Fricke said the episode began at about 11:15 p.m. when the officer was called by a woman at the Railroad Inn, 1228 E. Orangethorpe Ave., who was concerned because her boyfriend had threatened her.

Police Veteran of 5 Years

When the officer, a veteran of five years of police work, confronted the boyfriend, the man shot him and fled in his car, authorities said. Another officer arrived just as the assailant drove away, and was told by his still-conscious colleague to pursue the man, Fricke said.

After a short car chase, the man crashed into a railroad crossing bar about a mile away, then took cover behind his car as police closed in, Fricke said.

The standoff lasted about a half-hour, Fricke said, until the man shot at officers who had taken position around the suspect, and police returned fire and killed him, Fricke said.