Man Shot by Police Had Toy Gun, Tustin Mayor Says : Crime: Other officials won’t confirm that the weapon was not real. The wounded man reportedly aimed it at officer after an altercation with his common-law wife.

Gilberto Murrieta, the Tustin man shot by police Tuesday morning after allegedly pointing a gun at an officer, was actually carrying a toy gun at the time of the shooting, Tustin Mayor Richard B. Edgar said.

The mayor said he was briefed on the incident by the city manager Tuesday, and was told “that it was an officer-involved shooting and that the weapon involved was a toy gun.”

Citing an ongoing investigation, City Manager William A. Huston said he would neither conform nor deny the report. Tustin police and the district attorney’s office, which is investigating the case, also would not confirm the mayor’s statement.

Police Capt. Steve Foster said Murrieta produced a weapon “that precipitated the shooting,” but he declined to give any further information. The gun has been sent to a laboratory for analysis and only the district attorney’s office can comment, Foster said.

Deputy Dist. Atty. John D. Conley said he was declining to comment because the case is still under investigation.

But Murrieta’s sister, Celia Preston of Los Angeles, confirmed that her brother aimed a toy gun at police. She said he had found the toy in a trash can and kept it in the bed of his pickup truck.

“He had had it in his truck for a long time. . . . Yesterday, he went and got it while Elvira (Lupercio, Murrieta’s common-law wife) was talking to the police,” said Preston, 50. “The police were thinking he had a real gun and it wasn’t. It was a toy.”

Murrieta, 40, was reported in critical but stable condition Wednesday at Western Medical Center-Santa Ana with wounds in his arm and upper chest.

The shooting occurred Tuesday morning after police arrived at the Mei Ling Apartments on Tustin Village Way to check on a domestic-violence call from Lupercio, 33. She told police that Murrieta had hit her with a coffee pot and had thrown her to the floor.

Foster said officers spotted Murrieta walking about 15 yards from his apartment and confronted him, opening fire after he pulled out a pistol and pointed it at them.

Officials would not identify the officer involved but said that he and another officer who responded to the call are back on duty after in-house counseling.