2 Men Killed by Officer Were Shot 20 Times : Compton: One was hit 12 times and his brother eight times. Many of the bullets struck them in the back, an autopsy shows. The officer has been placed on desk duty pending completion of investigations.

Autopsy reports indicate that two brothers from Compton were shot a total of 20 times--with many of the bullets striking them in the back--by a local police officer responding to a domestic disturbance call at their home, authorities said Sunday.

The officer, whom Compton police have declined to name, has been placed on desk duty pending completion of separate investigations of the February shootings by the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office and police, authorities said.

Compton police say the officer shot and killed Pouvi Tualaulelei, 31, and his brother, Italia Tualaulelei, 22, after they attacked him and tried to wrest away his 9-mm semiautomatic service pistol shortly after midnight on Feb. 12. Neither brother was armed, police said.

The officer emptied his gun at the two men, reloaded and fired again.

The coroner’s report said the elder brother had 12 bullet wounds, eight in the back. The report also showed trace amounts of cocaine in Pouvi Tualaulelei’s blood.

The younger brother was shot eight times, with five of the bullets striking him in the back.

The officer had gone by himself to the house in the 1800 block of North Grandee Avenue to take a report after Pouvi Tualaulelei’s wife told police that her husband had beaten her and left the house with the couple’s two young sons. As the officer began to question the woman, the brothers drove up and confronted the officer in the driveway, police said. The shooting erupted after a brief struggle.

The deaths have prompted cries of outrage in the Samoan community, of which the Tualauleleis were members, and among students at El Camino College, where Italia played for the football team.

Protests are scheduled for today at the college and for Tuesday in front of Compton City Hall.

John Featherstone, Italia’s football coach, questioned the police account. The coach said a Tualaulelei family member who witnessed the shootings contends that the brothers did not attack the officer.

Compton Mayor Pro Tem Maxcy D. Filer said he is reserving judgment until the official investigations are complete.