Ex-Deputy Dies in Hail of Gunfire

A former sheriff’s deputy was shot dead by Simi Valley police after his attempt to persuade a married woman to leave her husband exploded in gunfire, police said Monday.

Bernard Edward Fernandez, 44, was killed by a barrage of police gunfire Sunday evening just after he shot Michael Gennaro, 38, who was lying on his stomach near Gennaro’s front door, police said.

Fernandez, a Simi Valley resident, was dead on arrival at Simi Valley Adventist Hospital, according to Ventura County Senior Deputy Coroner Craig Stevens.

Gennaro was taken to the same hospital with a .38-caliber bullet lodged between his right shoulder and his neck. He was in serious condition Monday, according to hospital officials.

“He could have killed me. He had me dead to rights,” the bearded Gennaro, a businessman who works in Los Angeles County, said in his hospital room. “The police saved my life.”

Fernandez was a Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy for about 14 years, joining the agency in November, 1973, and retired for medical reasons in December, 1987, said sheriff’s spokesman Bob Stoneman. His last duty station was Malibu, Stoneman said.

Stoneman said he could not elaborate on the details of Fernandez’s retirement.

Law enforcement officials and acquaintances said Fernandez was divorced and that he had two teen-age sons who live in Simi Valley with his ex-wife, Carol. They said he had recently worked as a private investigator.

The fight erupted over Gennaro’s wife, Terry, 41, according to a Simi Valley police report.

“The dispute concerned a reported attempt by Fernandez to persuade Terry Gennaro to leave her husband and pursue a relationship with Fernandez,” the report said.

Then, Sunday about 9:30 p.m., Fernandez, who had been a neighbor of the Gennaros for several years, knocked on the door of the couple’s ranch-style home on Parker Court in west Simi Valley.

Michael Gennaro said he kept Fernandez outside his house on the doorstep where they talked for about five minutes “about my wife.”

“He wanted her to come out of the house.” Gennaro refused.

He said he smelled liquor on Fernandez’s breath, but coroner’s official Stevens said this cannot be immediately confirmed because a toxicology report will not be ready for several days.

Michael Gennaro said Fernandez drew a .38-caliber revolver and fired several rounds into the door and walls of the house at 9:39 p.m.

Fortunately, Gennaro said, his three children, ages 10, 12 and 16, were watching television in an inner room of the house and were not harmed.

Hearing the shots, Terry Gennaro called police. Police said Fernandez heard her calling and fired a shot at her through a window but missed.

Fernandez, according to the police report, then “ordered Gennaro to kneel down and plead for his life, and also told him that he (Fernandez) knew that the police were coming.”

“He told Michael Gennaro that he was going to kill Gennaro and then commit suicide.”

“Please don’t do this,” Michael Gennaro said he told Fernandez.

Gennaro said he never gave in to Fernandez’s demand, and did not kneel and plead for his life.

Reflecting on the hectic situation from his hospital bed, he said he at first thought that Fernandez “was shooting blanks because he didn’t hit anything.”

Several Simi Valley police officers arrived at the house about four minutes after Fernandez fired the first rounds. Gennaro said the officers yelled for everyone to hit the ground.

Gennaro said he immediately fell to his stomach near the front door. Fernandez, he said, was standing nearby behind a pillar and could not be immediately seen by the arriving police.

Suddenly, he said, Fernandez moved behind him and fired a round, almost point-blank, into his back while he was still lying face-down on the ground.

“It felt like a punch in the back,” he said.

Two police officers standing about 15 feet from Fernandez, opened fire with a .12-gauge shotgun and a 9-millimeter handgun, police and the coroner reported.

Fernandez was hit by two shotgun rounds and three rounds from the handgun, and he died from a 9-millimeter wound to the chest, the coroner said.

Two officers, Ron Chambers, a six-year veteran of the Simi Valley Police Department, and Craig Reiners, on the force for less than a year, were automatically reassigned until police complete an investigation of the shooting.

A preliminary investigation indicated that “the officers were not only justified in their actions, but in all likelihood prevented further injury to Michael Gennaro or even saved his life,” the police report said.

“They both fired because he was firing at the other party, that was the reason for the shooting,” said Lt. Bob Klamser.

Doctors had not made a decision Monday on whether to risk surgery and remove the bullet from Gennaro because it was precariously lodged in a area near a nerve cluster.

Regarding Fernandez, Gennaro said he never socialized with him and cannot account for the violence.

As for any relationship between his wife and Fernandez, all Gennaro said was, “There was a situation that was going to come to a head.”

Sunday evening, it did.

“Life’s tough,” Gennaro said. “Things happen.”