Double Shooting Involving Officer Remains Mystery

San Diego police had no new information Tuesday about what caused the shooting of an off-duty rookie officer and another man because both are still hospitalized and unable to talk.

Officer David Mitchell, 36, was in serious but stable condition with wounds in the chest and both arms.

A San Diego man, Stanley Vance, 31, who also goes by the name Stanley Wheeler, is under guard at UCSD Medical Center in serious condition with a gunshot wound in the chest. Both lungs were pierced by the bullet.

Wheeler is being held on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon, said a spokeswoman at the County Jail. Homicide Lt. Paul Ybarrondo said Vance also is wanted on an outstanding warrant.

The incident began at about 7:50 p.m. Monday in a parking lot at Euclid and Olvera avenues in Southeast San Diego, witnesses told police. According to the witnesses, Mitchell got out of his brown Dodge Colt and approached a green Chevy pickup parked nearby, said Ybarrondo.

There was an exchange of shots and Mitchell staggered about 50 feet, then collapsed in front of the Imperial Fish Market while calling for help.

The pickup started north, made a U-turn and then went south on Euclid Avenue before crashing into a concrete wall about six blocks away and going into a yard on Euclid Avenue and Norfolk Street in National City, Ybarrondo said. Officers discovered Vance in the pickup when they arrived.

Ybarrondo said Mitchell had a 9-millimeter, semiautomatic pistol with him. Mitchell, who graduated from the police academy in April, was recently assigned as a patrol officer downtown.