Officer Fatally Wounds Parolee in Santa Ana : Shooting: The 18-year-old was hit after a scuffle with police. Witnesses said they believe the officer fired too many times in quick succession instead of trying to disable the man with one shot.

A pre-dawn foot chase and scuffle between a police officer and a suspect ended Sunday when the officer fatally wounded an 18-year-old parolee. But witnesses questioned whether the officer had to fire three shots to subdue the man.

Jose Javier Muniz of Santa Ana died at UCI Medical Center about 90 minutes after the 4:30 a.m. shooting in a back yard in the 3600 block of Washington Avenue, police said.

“A confrontation and assault on the officer took place” before the officer used his weapon, said Santa Ana Police Lt. Robert Helton, who declined to provide further details.

Witnesses who live at the home where the shooting occurred said that they saw Muniz wrestling on the ground with the officer but that they did not see how the struggle began. Still, the four members of the Delgado family who saw the confrontation all said they believe that the officer fired his gun too many times in quick succession instead of trying to wound the suspect with a single shot.

“I didn’t see anyone throw a first punch,” said Maureen Delgado, 14, who lives with her family at the Washington Avenue home. “They were just wrestling on the ground. And while they were wrestling, the officer pulled out his gun and shot Jose three times--bang, bang, bang. Later the officer came to me and said, ‘Didn’t you see him strike me?’ I told him no. All I saw is you shot him. You killed him.”

According to Maureen Delgado, the officer said, “Ah man!” and walked away, visibly angry.

“For the officer to shoot him as many times as he did, it wasn’t necessary,” she said.

“It was unfair,” said her sister, Mia Delgado, 23.

“It seemed excessive,” said their mother, Isabel Delgado, who added that Muniz was a friend of one of her sons.

After the shooting, said Maureen Delgado, Muniz was “laying by the pool, moaning and groaning. His stomach was flat on the cement. An arm was in the pool.”

Bloodstains and a bullet hole were visible on the cement deck around the family swimming pool.

The officer, whose name was not released, suffered an injury to one of his hands but was not hospitalized, police said. Muniz was hit by two bullets, they said. But Santa Ana police and the coroner’s office declined to release further information, saying the incident was under investigation by the Police Department and the Orange County district attorney’s office. The district attorney’s office routinely investigates all officer-involved shootings.

At Muniz’s apartment a block from the shooting scene, the young man’s mother wept Sunday.

“I want to go back to Mexico--there’s too many problems here,” said Maria Luisa Muniz, who brought her family to Santa Ana seven years ago. “I never thought that this would happen to my son.”

Jose Muniz was recently released from Juvenile Hall for violating his parole in an earlier car theft case, his mother said. He had returned to Horizon Continuation School and was scheduled to receive his diploma next month. He was employed as a helper at a local swap meet where his father sells scrap metal. Piles of used lamps, toys, furniture and small appliances stood on the driveway outside their apartment.

Maria Muniz’s other son, Marlon, 17, was injured in a drive-by shooting little more than a year ago, she said. “He was on his way to a hamburger stand,” she said.

Police said Sunday’s incident began when two officers responded to a call about people arguing in the front yard of a home in the 3600 block of West Sunswept Avenue. After talking to one of the residents, the officers were leaving the area when they saw Jose Muniz on a nearby street. “When the officers attempted contact with Muniz, he ran from them,” Helton said.

Muniz jumped a fence into the back yard of the Delgado home, police said. He was followed by the officer who shot him.

“I was in my room,” said Mia Delgado, one of the family members who was home at the time of the shooting. “I heard someone run past my window in the back. Then I heard more people coming by our pool gate. I looked out and saw shadows back by our patio. They looked like they were in a struggle . . . I couldn’t make out what they were saying. Then there were three shots . . . I crawled into our hallway and started to cry.”

She added that Jose Muniz had been friends with another brother and had occasionally visited the house.

Members of the Delgado family were interviewed at the district attorney’s office in Santa Ana on Sunday.

Police declined to say why they were chasing Jose Muniz. But members of the Delgado family said police told them that they believed that Muniz was involved with two other men being sought for stealing a car.