Tests Support Case Against Hubbard : Crime: Enzymes in the blood of the San Diego officer, charged with trying to kill and rob two men at Torrey Pines State Beach, match those in samples found at the scene.

Blood samples taken at the scene of a beach shooting last month match that of Henry Hubbard Jr., the San Diego police officer charged in the attack, the district attorney’s office said Thursday.

During a court hearing for Hubbard, a 4 1/2-year veteran of the department charged with attempted murder and attempted robbery, the prosecutor in the case also said that the blood of one of the victims matches that found on Hubbard after his arrest for the attack at Torrey Pines State Beach.

“The blood samples at the scene are consistent in type with the defendant’s blood,” Deputy Dist. Atty. Steve Anear said after the hearing. “And the blood on the clothing of the defendant is consistent with the blood of one of the victims.”

Hubbard is charged with shooting two men after their early-morning swim with a young woman Aug. 15. Shortly after the shooting, Hubbard checked into a nearby hospital with a bullet wound in his hand. His attorneys say the officer was attacked when his car broke down on the freeway.

Kerry Steigerwalt, one of Hubbard’s attorneys, said he is not overly concerned about the new evidence outlined Thursday because the prosecution has only a general blood type that purports to tie Hubbard to the scene and to one of the victims.

“I understand, preliminarily, they tested it, and all they did was the typing,” Steigerwalt said. “There hasn’t been any DNA testing or any subgrouping. The typing (Hubbard’s) under, some 50% of the population falls under.”

Although declining to specify what typing was done, Anear said “it’s not DNA and it’s not ABO,” or general blood typing.

Law enforcement sources told The Times that enzymes--called Phosphoglucomutase, or PGM--in Hubbard’s blood match those in blood samples found on the beach. The enzyme in the blood of one of the victims also matches that of the blood found on Hubbard, they said.

Simple “ABO” blood typing, which measures whether a sample is Type O, A, B or AB, is the initial and most routine examination of blood. About 40% of the population has Type O blood, about 40% has Type A blood, about 15% has Type B blood and about 5% has Type AB.

Hubbard’s attorneys say he has Type O blood, putting him in the 40% category.

By obtaining an enzyme match of two blood samples through PGM, criminalists say, the likelihood is even greater--but by no means definitive--that the samples found at the beach are those of Hubbard.

Instead of placing Hubbard in a 40% category, an enzyme match of the type found this week lowers the number to between 2% and 24% of the population that have the same characteristics. One law enforcement source said the number is less than 20%.

Although the numbers are still fairly high, the true match of blood samples will not be completed until DNA testing is completed in several weeks. DNA, or deoxyribonucleic acid, contains the unique genetic blueprint of each human being and can be measured in blood, semen, hair roots and other matter. Experts put the probability of a DNA match between two samples at 30 billion to one.

Evidence already brought out in court includes the discovery of Hubbard’s flashlight at the scene of the crime. Allen Bloom, one of Hubbard’s attorneys, said the flashlight, inscribed with the officer’s name and police badge number, was found in the jeep of one of the victims, not at the beach. One of the male victims told police that he grabbed the flashlight after the gunman dropped it.

Both shooting victims have been treated and released from the hospital.

In a previous court hearing, Anear noted that police had found spent shell casings and a bullet of the same caliber as a handgun registered to Hubbard. They also found beach sand in his wound and clothing.

Hubbard’s attorneys say he was attacked on his way home from his shift at Northern Division, where he patrolled the areas of La Jolla and Pacific Beach. His car had trouble, and when he got out to look under the hood, someone slammed it on his head, they said. Hubbard said he was attacked by three men, was shot in the struggle and passed out for about three hours. Upon waking, he said, his flashlight and gun were gone.

The attack was retaliation for court testimony Hubbard gave in an alleged police assault last year that led to a suspect’s acquittal, Bloom said.

On Thursday, Hubbard’s attorneys requested a continuance until Oct. 23 for their client’s preliminary hearing. He is being held at the downtown jail on $2-million bail.

His parents attended Thursday’s hearing, straining from their seats to catch a glimpse of their son for the first time since his arrest.

“We love our son,” said Henry Hubbard Sr., director of student services for the Lancaster Area School District in South Carolina, where Hubbard Jr. was raised. “We do not believe he could be guilty of these charges.”

Making his third court appearance, Hubbard answered only “yes” when asked if he understood that he was waiving his right to a preliminary hearing within 10 days.