Officers Kill Drug Suspect as He Backs Out of a Parking Lot

Undercover Orange police officers shot and killed a suspected drug dealer Wednesday in a convenience store parking lot, authorities said.

Police were unable to confirm late Wednesday whether the unidentified suspect was armed.

Orange Police Lt. Art Romo said the shooting occurred about 3 p.m. after the officers observed a drug transaction outside the 7-Eleven market on the corner of Williams and Main streets.

According to witnesses, the suspect had just finished meeting with another man and was backing out of a parking spot when three or four undercover officers surrounded his pickup.

“They yelled ‘Freeze! Freeze! Freeze!’ but he didn’t stop,” said Neil Patel, manager of the 7-Eleven. “Then they fired at him. It all happened so fast.”

The incident is the fourth officer-involved shooting, and the second fatal one, in the county this year. The last shooting occurred March 28 when a sheriff’s deputy fatally shot a man during a confrontation at a convenience store in Stanton.

Romo said investigators are “still trying to determine what led up to the shooting.” He said it is unclear whether the suspect was “trying to flee or run the officers over.”

A couple of witnesses said the suspect was maneuvering out of a tight space when the shooting began.

“He was backing up pretty slow. I can’t figure out why he would go so slow. Then they got him,” said a witness who declined to give her full name. She was in the market with her baby when she saw the officers circle the truck. “I figured they were policemen, but they didn’t look like it.”

After the shots were fired, the woman went to the back of the store to hide her son. “My first thoughts were to protect my son,” she said.

Tustin and Orange police, along with investigators from the district attorney’s office, roped off the parking lot and questioned about seven witnesses who were in the store at the time of the shooting.

The man that the suspect had been meeting with was taken away in a patrol car. Police declined to say whether he was arrested.

The shooting victim was taken to Western Medical Center-Santa Ana with bullet wounds to the upper torso, a hospital spokesman said. He died after undergoing surgery.

“This guy was hit pretty bad,” said Rey Smith, a nearby resident who ran to the scene after hearing at least four gunshots. “He was lying there face down in a pool of blood.”

Police declined to say how many rounds were fired, but four bullet holes were visible on the driver’s side of the truck’s windshield.

The district attorney’s office, which investigates all officer-involved shootings, could not be reached for comment.