Tustin Man Shot After He Pointed Gun, Police Say

A police officer responding to a call from a woman complaining about a violent domestic dispute shot and wounded her common-law husband after he pointed a handgun at officers, authorities said Tuesday.

Gilberto Murrieta, 40, an unemployed sewing machine repairman, was shot once in the upper chest at 7 a.m., minutes after the altercation with his common-law wife, Elvira Lupercio, 33, Police Capt. Steve Foster said. Foster refused to identify the officer.

Murrieta was listed in critical condition at Western Medical Center-Santa Ana, Foster said. He could face criminal charges if he recovers from his injury, Foster said, adding that authorities “haven’t determined whether to charge him or not.”

Foster said that shortly before 7 a.m., Lupercio called police from her apartment in the 15000 block of Tustin Village Way to ask for assistance in subduing Murrieta, with whom she had been living for 10 years.

Foster declined to describe the incident in detail or disclose what Lupercio told police during her 911 telephone call, citing the ongoing internal investigation by the department and the district attorney’s office.

Deputy Dist. Atty. John D. Conley, assigned to the case, has also declined to comment, saying only that release of details might hinder the investigation. He also said the probe will not be completed this month.

Foster said that before officers arrived at Mei Ling Apartments, Lupercio telephoned police a second time to say Murrieta had fled the apartment and was wandering the grounds of the sprawling complex.

Officers spotted Murrieta walking alone about 15 yards from his apartment. When they confronted Murrieta, he pulled out a handgun and pointed it at them, Foster said.

“There was a conversation between the two,” Foster said, declining to elaborate.

Seconds later, the officer opened fire, shooting several times but striking Murrieta only once, Foster said. He declined to say if Murrieta fired his weapon, which was confiscated by investigators.

Murrieta was taken to Western Medical Center-Santa Ana, where hospital administrators would not comment on his condition, referring all inquiries to police.

Lupercio said Murrieta was normally a nonviolent person and had never struck her before.

But on Tuesday morning the two fought for “personal reasons” and he became unusually belligerent, she said.

“He tried to put his hands on my neck,” Lupercio said as she sat in the sparsely furnished apartment that the couple have occupied for five months. Lupercio’s brother and the couple’s 18-month-old son also live in the two-bedroom apartment.

“Then he hit me with the coffee pot in the back and threw me on the floor,” she said.

She then called police, asking for assistance to calm Murrieta, she said. Murrieta held something under his jacket as he left the apartment, Lupercio said. She said she did not believe that he owned a handgun and did not know where he might have obtained one.

After Murrieta fled, Lupercio said, she telephoned the police dispatcher again and was told to stay inside and not hang up the telephone. She did not hear any shouts or gunshots and only learned of the shooting when police came to the door.

One man who asked not to be identified said another neighbor told him that police ordered Murrieta to put his hands up, but he apparently did not comply.