Officer Who Shot Motorist Had a Temper : Probe: Alan B. Ice told investigators of past incidents in which he was abusive toward his family, documents say.

Suspended Long Beach Police Officer Alan B. Ice acknowledged that he had recurring and sometimes violent flare-ups of temper before he was arrested this week for shooting a motorist, according to court documents released Wednesday.

In an hourlong interview with Fountain Valley police just hours after the Sept. 28 shooting, Ice stressed that his gun fired by accident during a traffic dispute, but he faced stiff questioning from investigators who wanted to know whether he had a short fuse.

Before his separation from his wife several years ago, “occasionally, I lost my temper,” Ice, 45, said in the interview.

He said police were called to his Fountain Valley home on “many occasions” to break up fights between him and his wife, who alleged several times that he struck her. And Ice said: “One time, I did abuse one of my daughters seriously, beat her up.”

He did not say how old the daughter was or how she was injured. However, no charges were brought against him in any of those incidents, Ice said.

Investigators pressed the issue of Ice’s temper in an apparent effort to determine whether his shooting of Neil Cramer, 36, of Santa Ana was in fact accidental or whether the off-duty officer lost his composure after Cramer swerved into traffic to avoid a fallen cyclist, a transcript of the interview shows.

A 21-year veteran of the Long Beach Police Department, Ice was arrested Wednesday on a charge of assault with a deadly weapon in the shooting and released from Orange County Jail on $25,000 bail. The patrolman was also suspended from the force this week.

A hearing is set for Monday at the Long Beach Police Department on the suspension, said Jim Trott, an Orange attorney who will represent Ice before the department. “It comes as a major surprise that (the department) would suspend someone without pay, without a hearing, because it’s unconstitutional,” Trott said, adding that he will seek full reinstatement and back pay.

Meanwhile, Ice’s arraignment was continued in Orange County Municipal Court in Westminster until Nov. 6. It is only the second time in recent years that Orange County authorities have charged a peace officer with a violent crime.

As he left his Fountain Valley apartment Wednesday, Ice declined to discuss any aspect of the case except to say that “I’m glad Mr. Cramer’s OK.” Cramer was released from the hospital on Friday with a bullet still lodged in his chest.

Law enforcement officials declined to comment Wednesday on what significance, if any, they attach to Ice’s comments about his temper, but one source said: “That’s information we’re obviously aware of. . . . Anything could be potentially relevant.”

In the interview with authorities, Ice maintained that he did not shoot Cramer out of anger. Rather, he said he became alarmed when the two men began verbally sparring at a traffic light at Ward Street and Slater Avenue in Fountain Valley and he saw Cramer turn away and reach for something in the cab of his truck--perhaps for a weapon.

In a hospital-bed interview last week, Cramer said that he never reached for anything.

When police interviewed him on Sept. 28, records show, he said that at one point he turned to look for a tool or something for protection, but “I didn’t find anything.”

However, Cramer’s daughter, 11-year-old Autumn, who was in the truck along with his fiancee, contradicted that account. According to the court documents released Wednesday, Autumn said her father “found a hammer for protection that he set by him. He wasn’t going to do anything with it.”

Ice’s criminal attorney, John D. Barnett of Santa Ana, said of the apparent contradiction: “It is significant if he is saying one thing and his daughter is saying another, especially on that issue because it’s a very significant point.”

Neither Cramer nor his Newport Beach attorney could be reached for comment Wednesday.

According to Ice’s account, “I asked him what he had in his hand. And he said, ‘Wouldn’t you like to know?’ And I said, ‘Well, why don’t you show it to me?’ ”

At that point, Ice and Cramer had already traded barbs after Ice demanded to know why the other motorist was taking up two lanes of traffic. “Not knowing what he was planning on doing,” Ice said he began to pull his handgun from a bag on the passenger’s seat.

After a few more insults were exchanged at the traffic light, Ice said he thought, “This guy’s going to get out, we’re going to get into it. I’m getting out of here.

“I started to drive off. Same time I was going to drop the safety on the gun, the car made a lurch. It went, the gun went off and struck him. . . . I thought, ‘Oh Christ, I’ve hit this guy.’ ”

In the Fountain Valley police interview, investigators asked Ice to show them how he reached for the safety latch and questioned him sharply over apparent contradictions in the placement of his hands. They also said a witness had disputed his statement that the shot was fired as he was entering the Ward-Slater intersection, but Ice said: “Somebody’s not telling the truth.”

The officer also denied Cramer’s assertion that he ever pointed his gun at the motorist.

After the shooting, Ice followed Cramer to nearby Fountain Valley Regional Hospital and Medical Center as the wounded man tried doggedly to lose him, fearing that he might be shot again. Police were called to the hospital, but Ice was not immediately arrested and his identity was not made public for several days, leading to allegations from Cramer and his lawyer that the police officer had been treated leniently by authorities.

Police denied showing any favoritism.

On Wednesday, Orange County Sheriff’s Department officials declined to release a copy of Ice’s jail booking photo.