Deputies’ Conduct at Party Investigated : Law enforcement: Celebrants reportedly fired dozens of shots into the air at fund-raiser for dismissed fellow officers.

A number of Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies are being questioned as part of a criminal investigation into a boisterous party last week that ended with deputies firing dozens of shots into the air and the driver of a pickup truck shooting from his vehicle, The Times has learned.

Apparently no one was hurt in the early-morning incident on March 27, which began as a fund-raising party at the Copacabana Restaurant in Maywood for several former sheriff’s deputies, including some who were dismissed earlier for allegedly violating the department’s shooting policy.

But the event, which also attracted officers from other law enforcement agencies, is now the subject of a criminal inquiry after reports that party-goers had fired indiscriminately into the air from a parking lot in the largely industrial area.

“We are conducting an ongoing criminal investigation into the incident,” said Sheriff’s Capt. Douglas McClure.

The results of a Sheriff’s Department criminal investigation will be forwarded to the district attorney’s office where prosecutors will decide whether to file charges. Under a 1988 state law, a person firing a gun into the air in celebration could be charged with a felony and face a maximum penalty of one year in prison.

Last month, a 5-year-old Carson boy was struck by a random bullet fired from half a mile away. A teen-ager arrested in the slaying was allegedly shooting a .38-caliber gun in the air to impress friends.

Mike Botula, a spokesman for the district attorney’s office, said the office has not filed charges against any officers under the new law, but is awaiting the completion of an investigation involving a sheriff’s deputy firing a gun into the air. Botula said that the district attorney will decide next week whether to file charges against an off-duty Los Angeles police officer.

He said he could not comment on whether either case is related to the Copacabana incident.

Lt. John Duncan, a spokesman for the LAPD, said earlier that he was not aware of any investigation linking a Los Angeles police officer to the incident.

Sheriff Sherman Block--who joined other local law enforcement officials in backing the tougher penalty against indiscriminate shooting--had no comment on the investigation. But McClure said the sheriff ordered the criminal inquiry “as soon as he became aware” of what had occurred.

According to a police report, Maywood and Vernon police officers had responded to emergency calls that numerous gunshots were fired shortly after 2 a.m. outside the Copacabana on Fruitland Avenue, a street that divides the two cities.

A bartender at the restaurant told officers that he saw the driver of a pickup truck holding a gun and firing rounds from it before speeding away. The bartender could not identify the driver, the report said, and there was no indication whether the gunman was a deputy.

When investigating officers searched a parking lot across the street, they found 29 shell casings from 9-millimeter guns scattered throughout the lot used by deputies attending the party, according to the police report.

Deputy Carlos Ponce, a Firestone detective who helped organize the event, told The Times that scores of officers and some of their spouses attended the Copacabana fund-raiser. He said the party was intended to help raise money for several deputies who had been fired recently by the Sheriff’s Department for allegedly using excessive force or violating the department’s shooting policy.

“Basically, they are going through hard times . . . trying to make ends meet,” Ponce said. “That was the primary intention and whole purpose of the party, as a fund-raiser for them.”

Although Ponce said he was unaware how much money was raised, other sources told The Times that several thousand dollars went to the ex-deputies. He identified three of the recipients as Kelly Enos and Paul McCready--fired last January for allegedly violating the department’s shooting policy in the death of a man who was shot eight times in the back last summer--and Brian E. Kazmierski.

Kazmierski had been fired by the department for his role in an alleged cross-burning incident at the Men’s Central Jail but was later reinstated. A source familiar with the matter said Kazmierski was dismissed later in connection with a shooting incident.

The deputies could not be reached. Their union attorney, Richard Shinee, and sheriff’s officials declined comment. The three deputies have appealed their firings.

Citing the ongoing investigation, Ponce would not comment on the shooting outside the restaurant.

Several deputies familiar with the incident said the shots were fired because deputies were venting their anger over the dismissal of fellow officers and climaxed an evening marked by heavy drinking and altercations among party-goers.

Mike Latorre, manager of the Copacabana, said the party was generally a peaceful fund-raiser that included officers from other police departments as well as deputies. Latorre said he left the party before the gunfire began, but returned the next day to find that a deputy had accidentally fired his gun into a bathroom ceiling.

“It wasn’t a big hole. It wasn’t a big thing,” he said.

Latorre, who said he was interviewed by sheriff’s investigators, downplayed the incident and said the department was making too much over the gunfire.

“They wanted to get rid of these tensions and take it out with their guns,” he said. “Some guys do it drinking. some guys do it fighting and other guys do it this way.”