Wrong Call, a Burst of Fire : Crime: Slain Fullerton Police Officer Tommy De La Rosa decided that the house a suspect was taking him to was secure, but it was too far away from backup officers.

When Tommy De La Rosa turned down a dead-end street at the direction of a drug suspect accompanying him in a late-model van, the undercover Fullerton police officer made a decision that cost him his life.

A house where the suspect was taking De La Rosa Thursday afternoon to complete a drug transaction was located near the end of a cul-de-sac--too far away for backup officers to maintain close surveillance.

De La Rosa, 43, a nine-year veteran of the Fullerton Police Department, decided, however, that the house was “secure” enough for him to go in alone, Downey Police Chief D. Clayton Mayes said Friday.

“That was his judgment call,” Mayes said.

De La Rosa was shot five times when four gunmen opened fire as he followed the suspect up the driveway. Before collapsing, the mortally wounded officer managed to return fire, fatally wounding Joseph Najera Rodriguez, 35, the man who police said directed De La Rosa to the address on the 8900 block of Arrington Avenue.

More details about the bloody ambush were released Friday during a news conference at the Downey Police Department.

Mayes said that De La Rosa had gone to meet Rodriguez on a street corner in Downey a short time before the 3:20 p.m. shooting as part of a “reverse sting” operation in which the officer, posing as a drug dealer, planned to sell $4-million worth of cocaine to Rodriguez and his associates.

Rodriguez’s group had been identified by Fullerton police as a major cocaine-trafficking ring operating in Los Angeles and Orange counties. The group had been placed under surveillance two weeks ago by an Orange County task force led by the Fullerton Police Department. The task force included officers from La Habra, Cypress, Brea, Anaheim and Placentia.

Fullerton Police Chief Philip Goehring said that De La Rosa carried in his van a mixture of cocaine and a non-narcotic substance that was intended to look like the 200 kilograms of cocaine he was offering to sell. De La Rosa was allowing Rodriguez to direct him to the address where the suspects had promised to exchange money for the drugs.

But the men apparently had no intention of paying for the drugs. Instead, they arranged to rob De La Rosa, apparently not realizing that he was an undercover police officer in a sting operation, Mayes said.

“It would appear that it was a drug rip-off,” he said. “They were going to take him down.”

As of Friday, police had arrested 13 people, including a 17-year-old boy and two women, with suspected ties to the drug ring. They were booked on suspicion of murder in connection with De La Rosa’s killing. The 12 adults were being held in Los Angeles County Jail, while the juvenile was being detained at Los Angeles County Juvenile Hall.

Police had quickly arrested three of the suspected gunmen in an adjoining residence and a fourth some three hours later on a nearby street.

Through the night Thursday and early Friday, the Orange County task force arrested the nine others, four at a Fullerton motel.

Names of the suspects were not released pending further investigation. Mayes said all but one are Spanish-speaking illegal aliens, ranging in age from 17 to 49.

In evaluating Thursday’s tragic events, Goehring and Fullerton Police Capt. Lee DeVore said that there was little any of De La Rosa’s backup officers could have done to save his life.

“We take every precaution, but there is a limit to how much we can do,” DeVore said. “It is not risk-free.”

Goehring said De La Rosa could not have worn a bulletproof vest, because the bulk beneath his shirt would have given him away as a police officer. And, he said, having another undercover officer accompany De La Rosa would only have exposed the second officer to danger as well.

DeVore added that the reverse sting operation--in which undercover police sell drugs to suspects--was being carried out in the relative safety of daylight and on a quiet residential street.

“I can assure you that had the case investigators had any inkling that this outcome was most likely to have happened, we would have pulled away from the operation,” Goehring said.

The ambush was so sudden and overwhelming--police say that the gunmen opened fire at once, hitting De La Rosa from two directions--that investigators said he had no chance to run or defend himself.

Under the watchful eye of Officer Bob Elrod, in a helicopter hovering discreetly overhead, De La Rosa stepped out of his undercover van and followed Rodriguez to the rear of a house, Mayes said.

De La Rosa, wearing a hidden radio transmitter, disappeared from the pilot’s view momentarily as he stepped under a covered area separating the main house from a guest house at the rear, Mayes said. That’s when the four men burst out of both houses and opened fire with pistols, shotguns and a semiautomatic weapon.

When Elrod spotted De La Rosa staggering back into view, the pilot radioed the backup officers for help. As police swarmed over the neighborhood seconds later, two officers rushed to De La Rosa’s side and vainly attempted to revive him. Meanwhile, Elrod landed his four-seat helicopter in what Goehring described as a dangerous rescue attempt.

“I am absolutely in awe of the noble efforts by the pilot and those officers to save the life of the officer,” Goehring said.

Elrod whisked De La Rosa to Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead.

On Friday, flags were flown at half-staff at police stations in Fullerton and Downey as friends and colleagues mourned the slain officer.

“It’s a brother that we have lost,” said La Habra Police Sgt. Jerry Cline. “Everybody is upset.”

“It sets everybody back on their heels,” added Anaheim Police Capt. Randy Gaston. “When we’re working these type of assignments, this is our worst fear.”

Inside the Fullerton department, a huge bouquet of white lilies and roses took up most of the counter in a narrow waiting room where a receptionist, her face streaked with tears, answered inquiries about the funeral arrangements.

The funeral will be held Tuesday at 11 a.m. at the First Evangelical Free Church on Brea Boulevard in Fullerton.

De La Rosa, a decorated Vietnam War veteran, earned numerous awards and citations for his work as a Fullerton officer.

“He’s the kind of police officer we all would like to be . . . always there when you need him,” fellow Officer Bob Booth said.

Goehring said police counselors were meeting with the officers to help them cope with the tragedy. The chief said that some officers at the scene of the shooting expressed feelings of guilt for not being able to do more to help De La Rosa, but he said he assured them that there was nothing they could have done.

De La Rosa’s wife, Leslie, and three daughters remained secluded Friday. A fellow officer who declined to give his name watched over De La Rosa’s home in Brea, gently placing a bereavement bouquet inside the door and declining requests for interviews. Other family members from De La Rosa’s hometown of Houston were reported en route to Orange County.

Neighbors, shocked by De La Rosa’s death, recalled how he often sat in his front yard before he left for work, waving to neighbors as he played with his dark-haired baby girl, Ashley.

“He really loved his daughter,” said Marion Ewing, who lives across the street from the De La Rosa home. “He was just a very, very nice man. It’s just a tragedy. Everyone has lost.”

Contributions to De La Rosa’s family can be made to:

De La Rosa Fund, Fullerton Police Officers’ Assn., 237 W. Commonwealth Ave., Fullerton, 92632

Times staff writers Rose Ellen O’Connor and Davan Maharaj contributed to this report.

GAME:

The ambush slaying of a Fullerton officer underscores an increasing potential for violence.

KILLED IN LINE OF DUTY

Fullerton Police Officer Tommy De La Rosa, shot to death during a drug sting operation Thursday, was the 29th officer killed in the line of duty in Orange County history. The first to die on duty was county Undersheriff Robert Squires, killed in 1912 in a shoot-out at Tomato Springs in the foothills near El Toro. Seven have died on duty since 1980. They include:

Deputy Mark S. Tonkin, 31, Orange County Sheriff’s Department--killed Oct. 24, 1988, in the crash of a drug-interdiction helicopter near the Mexico-California border. Tonkin was part of a county-state anti-drug team.

Officer Robert Roulston, 38, Anaheim Police Department--died Oct. 16, 1988, after a car struck his motorcycle near Anaheim Stadium as he was directing traffic.

Officer Edward Clavell Jr., 31, Seal Beach Police Department--killed Aug. 23, 1988, when his patrol car collided with another car at Seal Beach and Westminster boulevards during a pursuit of a speeding vehicle.

Officers Dave Ketchum and Mike Libolt, both 39, Costa Mesa Police Department--killed March 10, 1987, in a midair collision in their helicopter while tracking a high-speed chase involving a stolen car.

Officer Michael L. Rainford, 23, Garden Grove Police Department--died Nov. 7, 1980, after he was struck down by a drunk driver while getting out of his car during a traffic stop at Harbor Boulevard and the Garden Grove Freeway.

Officer Donald F. Reed, 27, Garden Grove Police Department--fatally shot June 7, 1980, while serving an arrest warrant at a Garden Grove bar. Two other officers and two bystanders were wounded.

Source: Orange County Sheriff-Coroner Department