Wounded Man Recounts Argument That Preceded Shooting by Officer

The words between the two drivers had turned ugly. But now the traffic light was green, and as Neil Cramer started through the intersection, “I figured everything was done,” he says. “I thought (the argument) was over.”

It wasn’t. “The next thing I remember,” the 36-year-old Santa Ana man said, he saw a gun pointing toward him from the car a few feet away, and “I heard a pop.”

Seated in a hospital wheelchair, his face twisted in a frequent grimace, Cramer gave his first public account Thursday of an incident that could lead to criminal charges against a 21-year veteran of the Long Beach Police Department.

Patrol Officer Alan B. Ice, 45, of Fountain Valley has reportedly told police union officials that he saw Cramer reach for something--perhaps a weapon--during an argument that began just after noon Saturday near the intersection of Ward Street and Warner Avenue.

Ice also said his gun went off accidentally as he tried to activate the safety, union officials say.

But Fountain Valley police this week recommended that Ice be charged with assault with a deadly weapon, and Orange County prosecutors are deciding whether they will take the rare step of bringing charges against a peace officer.

A self-employed carpenter, Cramer said at a press conference at the Fountain Valley Regional Hospital and Medical Center that he does not believe the gunshot, which went through his left shoulder and lodged in his chest, was any accident.

In fact, Cramer said he was so terrified that the driver might shoot again, with his fiancee and his 11-year-old daughter in the truck, that he took a U-turn and other evasive maneuvers en route to the nearby emergency room.

“I said (to his daughter), ‘Get down!’ ” Cramer recounted. “The man had already shot me. I didn’t know what he might do.”

Ice apparently followed Cramer to the hospital. As he lay bleeding on his back, Cramer heard the man who had just shot him tell a nurse: “I’m sorry. I’ll take care of everything.”

When he found out several days later that Ice is a police officer, Cramer said, “It was so hard to believe.”

While authorities review criminal charges, Cramer and his attorney, Dennis Minna of Newport Beach, are also pursuing a civil lawsuit against Ice and the Long Beach Police Department.

Cramer may be released from the hospital this weekend--with the bullet still lodged below his lung, about 2 inches from his heart. His doctor said Cramer is “lucky to be alive” because the bullet narrowly missed vital organs.

Asked how he felt, Cramer said: “Lousy, tired, hurt.”

Cramer said the dispute began when he swerved to avoid a fallen bicyclist along Ward Street. Then, he heard a motorist honking at him and holding up a middle finger.

When both cars got to a red light at Slater Avenue, Cramer said, “I asked him what’s wrong--did you see the kid fallen off his bicycle?” And Ice said: “ ‘You don’t have to take up the whole . . . road,’ ” according to Cramer.

The two exchanged a few brief barbs, Cramer said. But he denied reaching for anything, saying: “Both hands were on the wheel.” And he added: “I may have spit out of the car, but I didn’t spit at him.”

As the cars pulled through the green light, Cramer said he saw “the gun was up. . . . And boom, that was it.”

According to Long Beach Police Officers Assn. President Paul Chastain, Ice planned to meet with a lawyer about the case Thursday.

“He was really down,” Chastain said after talking with Ice on Thursday morning. “He’s not really worried (about possible charges). He’s just really upset that Mr. Cramer got hurt--that’s all he keeps talking to me about.”