Officer Kills Party-Goer in Scuffle, Police Say : Shooting: The off-duty LAPD veteran was responding to a noisy party on his block when he says two men attacked him.

An off-duty Los Angeles police officer, trying to quiet a loud party in his neighborhood early Sunday, shot and killed a Canoga Park construction worker who the officer said attacked him and tried to take his gun.

James Klomparens, 25, was shot four times by Officer Donald Black, 45, just after 2 a.m. in front of a house where Klomparens had been attending a party, a police spokesman said. Black, a 20-year veteran of the force who is assigned to the training academy, told police investigators that Klomparens had threatened him with a sawed-off shotgun just before the shooting.

The incident was not the only outbreak of violence at the party at a house in the 20500 block of Hamlin Street in a normally tranquil suburban neighborhood. Earlier, a man identified by friends as Klomparens’ roommate was stabbed in the side during an argument. The man, David Jewitt, was treated and released at West Valley Hospital.

Jewitt and other friends of Klomparens said that some of the party-goers were members of the Mickey Mouse Club, one of several white gangs in the San Fernando Valley. Jewitt said the party was thrown by his brother, Steve, in their parents’ house while they were away on vacation.

One neighbor said he was afraid to talk about the incident because the party-goers were “a tough bunch.” Others said the party, which started Saturday, was particularly disruptive from the beginning, featuring drag racing, drinking and arguing.

“It was very loud, extremely loud, with people talking and yelling,” said next door neighbor Paul Van Vegten, as he relaxed in his back yard Sunday afternoon.

Another neighbor, who wished to be identified only as Eleanor, said she had called the Police Department several times starting at midnight to complain about the party. She said that by the time officers arrived, however, the shooting had already happened.

“There have been parties with young people in the neighborhood before, but this one sounded very different,” she said. “There was terrible arguing, very loud. . . . I told the police, ‘I’m afraid something awful is going to happen.’ ” If they had come sooner, maybe that young man would still be alive.”

According to police records, a patrol car was first dispatched to the address at 2:06 a.m. in response to complaints. Two minutes later, before the officers had arrived, the police were notified by numerous neighbors that shots had been fired.

Officer Black told investigators that he had been awakened at his home about 2 a.m. by shouting and yelling from the party. When he went out onto the street he saw four men engaged in an argument, he said. Two of the men were brothers, James and Michael Klomparens.

“Officer Black asked them to quit yelling and hold the noise down,” said Police Department spokesman Ralph Duncan. “The four began to curse at the officer and James Klomparens reached into the bed of a pickup truck and armed himself with a sawed-off shotgun.”

Black drew his service revolver, identified himself as a police officer and ordered Klomparens to put down the weapon, Duncan said, and when Klomparens did not do so immediately, Black fired a warning shot into the air.

Klomparens put the shotgun back into the truck, but his brother, Michael, 30, grabbed it and tried to pull it away when the officer picked it up, according to the police report. Simultaneously, Black told investigators, James Klomparens attacked him and tried to take his revolver.

Black fired one shot at James Klomparens, the officer reported.

Michael Klomparens then released the shotgun, but the struggle continued, Black said, with both men attacking him and knocking him to the ground. As he fell, he fired three more shots at James Klomparens, according to the report.

The brothers made their way back to the house and Black returned home to call the West Valley police station, Duncan said.

James Klomparens was taken to a Kaiser Permanente hospital in Panorama City, where he died shortly before 3 a.m., according to a county coroner’s spokesman. He had four bullet wounds, the police report said.

Police at the scene took Michael Klomparens into custody. He was being held Sunday at the Van Nuys jail on a charge of assaulting a police officer with a deadly weapon.

David Jewitt, recuperating at his girlfriend’s house on Sunday, said that Mickey Mouse Club gang members at the party threatened his brother, who he said was a former gang member.