Drug Suspect Shot, Killed by Anaheim Police

An Anaheim police officer shot and killed a Brea narcotics suspect who allegedly tried to grab the officer’s holstered pistol early Tuesday after a short chase through mist-shrouded residential streets.

Gregory Alan Rosenberger, 25, was pronounced dead in the back yard of a modest Anaheim home after the shooting, which occurred about 1:30 a.m.

It marked the 26th officer-involved shooting so far this year in Orange County, compared to 20 for all of last year.

Police detectives said two officers who witnessed an apparent drug deal chased Rosenberger to the yard, where a scuffle ensued. One of the officers shot Rosenberger several times when he repeatedly lunged for the gun, police said.

However, an eyewitness who watched the struggle in his back yard said he never saw the man reach for the holstered gun. He said the officers beat Rosenberger with night sticks until the man fell on the ground. At least one of the officers yelled that Rosenberger appeared to have a weapon, and they opened fire, the witness said.

“I know he didn’t go for the gun because he took a beating,” said the witness, Jose Ramirez, 24.

But Anaheim Police Lt. Marc Hedgpeth disputed Ramirez’s account, saying an autopsy showed the trajectory of the bullets indicated that Rosenberger was standing, not lying down, when he was shot.

Citing department policy, Hedgpeth would not identify the two officers involved in the incident.

According to police, the incident began when the two officers saw Rosenberger and another man make what appeared to be a drug deal in a litter-strewn alley near an apartment building in the 700 block of West Hall Avenue.

When they tried to confront Rosenberger, he started running, and the two officers chased after him, police said. They ran three short blocks, ending up in the yard between two houses on Ralston Street near Romneya Drive.

With the officers close behind him, Rosenberger climbed a wooden gate to enter the back yard of a house. The shouts awoke neighbors, including Ramirez, who said he tried to peer out a bedroom window into the misty morning darkness to see what was happening in the side yard.

Once in the back yard, Rosenberger grabbed one of the officers’ pistols--still in its holster--to try to wrestle it away, according to police. The officer tried to push the man away while the other tried to beat him off with a billy club, Hedgpeth said, adding that the blows seemed to have little effect on the man.

The officer pulled free of Rosenberger but opened fire on the man when Rosenberger tried to lunge at him again, Hedgpeth said. Rosenberger was struck several times in the chest, an autopsy later revealed. Hedgpeth said that some narcotics were found in Rosenberger’s pockets--he refused to say what type--but that the suspect had no guns.

Ramirez, however, gave a different version of events.

After being unable to see the men clearly through the bedroom window, Ramirez said he rushed around to the rear sliding glass door of the single-story tract house and switched on the outdoor floodlights. Standing about 20 feet from the two officers and Rosenberger in the back yard, he said he could see the incident clearly.

“They were beating the crap out of him. They were really beating him. That’s why I yelled, ‘Hey, leave him alone,’ ” said the welder, standing near the fresh smear of dried blood that marked the spot on the back fence near where Rosenberger died. Ramirez lives in the beige stucco house with his parents, brother and his fiancee.

He said Rosenberger, clad in a pink T-shirt and dark blue shorts, tried to climb out of the back yard. At one point, Rosenberger allegedly broke a fiberglass panel atop the block wall trying to escape.

Ramirez said Rosenberger was standing as both officers struck him with their batons. The beating was so intense, he said, that the man crumpled to the ground in the corner of the yard.

It was then, Ramirez said, that he heard one or both of the officers yell that the man appeared to have a gun. He said at least one of the officers opened fire as they stood over Rosenberger. Both Ramirez and his fiancee, Mickey Mahaffey, 19, said they heard a total of five shots.

After the shooting, Ramirez said, the two officers stood over Rosenberger’s body while other officers began arriving.

Hedgpeth contended that evidence disproves Ramirez’s account.

“The autopsy results do not support his observations,” he said. The path of the bullets that struck Rosenberger shows that officers were not standing over him, he said.

Hedgpeth said a review by top police officials will determine whether the shooting followed departmental policy for justifiable shootings.

He added that the second man in the alleged drug deal was not pursued.

The two officers were put on two-day administrative leave, standard procedure after an officer-involved shooting.

Further, the shooting will be investigated by the Orange County district attorney’s office, which sent a team to the scene. The district attorney’s office routinely investigates officer-involved shootings in Orange County.

A Pathway to Death 1. Two Anaheim police officers see what they believe to be a drug deal occur in the 700 block of West Hall Avenue. They try to confront Gregory Alan Rosenberger, 25, of Brea who allegedly participated in the deal. he runs away as officers chase on foot. 2. The two officers chase Rosenberger west on Hall, then north on Citron Street and east on Romneya Drive. 3. neighbors are awakened to shouts as Rosenberger scales the fence between two houses on Ralston Street and enters the back yard of the corner house. 4. In the back yard, police say Rosenberger scuffles with police and tries to grab one of their holstered pistols. Police say they fight him off and open fire as he tries to lunge again, killing him. 5. A witness, watching from the home’s back sliding glass door, says the officers severely beat Rosenberger with night sticks until he fell on the ground.

26TH VICTIM: A record 26 people have been wounded or killed by Orange County police this year. A23