Toll in Police Shootings Hits Record in ’89 : Law Enforcement: Police can’t explain rash of shootings that have left 11 people dead and 15 wounded except to say that ‘more bad guys are carrying guns.’

Local peace officers have killed or wounded 26 people in shootings during the first 10 months of 1989--the worst year for police gunplay in Orange County history.

“It’s definitely a record,” said Loren DuChesne, a chief investigator for the Orange County district attorney’s office, which looks into virtually all shootings involving law enforcement officers.

County statistics show that police shot at least 20 people in 1988, twice the number fired on in 1987. In 1984, 11 people were killed or wounded by gunfire.

For the first 10 months of this year, the toll has been 11 killed and 15 wounded. Police opened fire in two other cases, but no one was injured. Seven shootings occurred in Santa Ana, the most in any city.

Law enforcement authorities and deputy district attorneys who investigate police shootings say they cannot explain the rash of incidents, except that there appears to be more violence and resistence to police today.

“It seems that more bad guys are carrying guns who aren’t afraid to use them,” said Lt. Richard J. Olson, a spokesman for the Orange County Sheriff’s Department. “But exactly why they come out shooting, I just don’t know.”

Increase Statewide

Statewide, the number of justifiable homicides by peace officers has increased throughout California since 1983, according to the state attorney general’s office. Statistics show that 78 people were shot to death by police in 1983, 64 in 1984, 91 in 1985, 85 in 1986, and 92 in 1987.

In Orange County, peace officers are not to blame, according to district attorney investigators. Prosecutors say they never have found enough evidence to file criminal charges against an officer in the cases closed to date.

The number of officers disciplined by their own departments for violating firearms policies is unavailable because police agencies do not have to divulge disciplinary information to the public.

While rules governing the use of deadly force differ among departments, most firearms policies are designed to give officers discretion. But in all cases, there must be an immediate danger to the officers, hostages or innocent bystanders. Officers can be reprimanded, suspended without pay or fired for violating policy.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Bryan Brown, who investigates fatal police shootings, said there is no pattern to the incidents, which makes them difficult to explain. “It’s hard to say why,” he said. “Each case is unique and you can’t draw parallels from them.”

The district attorney’s office, which usually is notified immediately after a police shooting, reviews the incident independent of the police investigation and determines whether criminal charges should be filed.

This year began with the case of Paul Gonzales of Garden Grove, who was shot to death in his living room Jan. 29 when he displayed what turned out to be a toy gun. While relatives of Gonzales said he was unarmed and that his hands were visible, the district attorney’s office concluded that no charges should be filed against police.

Since then, police have shot 18 people who had some type of visible weapon, either a pistol, knife, metal pipe, automobile or martial arts device. One man was shot after stabbing his wife, and police killed another man who was holding his wife hostage.

Three people were shot during struggles with authorities, including Gregory A. Rosenberger, 25, who was killed Tuesday by an Anaheim officer. Police said Rosenberger, a narcotics suspect, had tried to grab an officer’s pistol after a chase through a residential area.

Three other incidents involved unarmed suspects. One reportedly reached for his waistband, which was empty, while another put his hands behind his back as he faced officers. Another unarmed man, Ernest Nunez, was shot in the back with a shotgun Sept. 20 as he fled from Santa Ana officers answering a robbery complaint.

Whether the suspect is armed “is a big factor in looking at these cases,” said Deputy Dist. Atty. Wallace Wade, who supervises police shooting investigations. “But every case is different. If a guy walks out of a bank with a gun, that is a different from an officer who perceives that a guy has a gun. But officers can be right in both cases.”