Man Killed in Shoot-Out After Officer Is Wounded

A Placentia police officer was shot and wounded outside a bar by a woman’s outraged boyfriend, who was later cornered by police and killed in a gun battle on a gravel vacant lot, authorities said Friday.

The 32-year-old officer, a five-year veteran whose name was being withheld by authorities, was in stable condition at United Western Medical Center-Santa Ana after three hours of surgery for an abdominal wound.

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

Dennis William Smith, 32, was killed by officers after he fired shots at them shortly before midnight, said Sgt. Jay Fricke, a Placentia police spokesman.

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

“It sounded like a war going off,” said Martin Garcia, 20, a neighbor who was walking back to his house when police opened fire. “It sounded like a free-for-all.”

Another witness, Bill Johns, 43, said police “blasted off about 50 shots” like something “from the movies” before an officer yelled to cease fire.

Investigators from the Orange County district attorney’s office combed the area Friday morning, examining Smith’s bullet-riddled car and picking up spent shell casings and bullet fragments. A concrete wall that served as the backdrop for the midnight drama was pockmarked with bullet holes that investigators circled with yellow markers.

Authorities disclosed few details of the events that led to the shooting of the officer, who has a pregnant wife and three children, or the gun battle in the vacant lot, which is bordered on two sides by pastel, wood-frame houses.

“We’ve had a number of investigators out there since last night,” said Deputy Dist. Atty. Brian Brown, who is handling the shooting investigation. “It would be premature for me to talk about anything we’ve learned at this point. We’ll try to get the investigation concluded as quickly as we can.”

Police reported no other casualties besides Smith and the wounded officer.

Neighbors, however, said a resident of the area, Robert Rodriguez, 32, was grazed on the lip by a stray bullet while he peeked from behind a concrete block wall during the final shoot-out. His mother, who declined to give her name, said Rodriguez was in good condition after being treated at the hospital and was interviewed by police Friday.

Workers at The Railroad Inn, a Placentia restaurant and bar where Smith’s girlfriend worked as a bartender, said they were surprised by the events of Thursday evening.

“Every time (Smith) came in, he seemed like a real nice guy,” said Troy Cullen, a waiter at the restaurant. “Quiet. Real low-key.”

Smith, a painter, and the woman, who was not identified by police, dated for about two months but did not live together, employees said. During their short courtship, Smith showered the girlfriend with presents, among them numerous gold rings, jewelry, necklaces and clothing, they said.

Employees said there was no clue that anything was amiss in the relationship between the woman and Smith, a Texas native who served a stint in the Marines. Smith preferred to drink coffee rather than alcohol when he stopped by the tavern at the end of his girlfriend’s shift, they said.

“He was usually very quiet,” said Gary Farrinton, a cook at the restaurant. “I never saw him out of line. . . . But he might have just wigged out.”

Authorities said the episode unfolded about 11:15 p.m., when the officer went to the restaurant in the 1200 block of East Orangethorpe Avenue in response to a report of a fight between Smith and his girlfriend.

When the officer confronted Smith in the parking lot, which is shared by a 7-Eleven and other small shops that line the small commercial strip center, the boyfriend shot him, authorities allege. Smith fled in his car as the officer slumped to the ground, police said.

Another Placentia police officer arrived just as Smith drove away and was told by his still-conscious colleague to pursue Smith, Fricke said.

After a short chase, Smith’s car crashed through a light standard at a railroad crossing about a mile away. His car came to rest in the vacant lot, and Smith took cover behind the upraised engine hood as police closed in, Fricke said.

Officers had fanned out behind squad cars and the low concrete walls of nearby houses, police said.

Several neighbors echoed police accounts of the final gun battle.

Garcia said he was at his house nearby getting ready to sleep when he heard “a big bang” and ran out to find a man crouched behind a battered car, locked in a standoff with police.

The stalemate lasted about 20 minutes, as officers used a loudspeaker to urge the gun-wielding man to give up his weapon and come out peacefully, Garcia said.

Johns, who lives directly across the vacant lot on Van Buren Street, said the cornered man alternately pointed his handgun at police and then raised it to his temple, as if preparing to commit suicide.

At about midnight, the gunman lowered his weapon and “threw a few shots” at the officers, said Garcia, who watched the events with other neighbors from behind a wall about 50 feet down the street. One police officer responded by firing a shot back at the gunman, he said.

At that point, a Placentia policeman ran over to Garcia and other huddled residents and ordered them to return home. A minute or two later, as the residents were milling toward their houses, “we just heard gunshots going wild,” Garcia said.

“It sounded like, man, it sounded very awful,” he said. “I never heard anything like that.”