Man in Park Fatally Shot by 2 Officers : Violence: Police had answered call about bloodied, ‘suspicious’ man who they say pointed a gun at them while lying on the ground.

A man lying on the ground in a park was shot to death by two police officers late Sunday afternoon after he pointed a handgun at them, according to a spokesman for San Clemente police.

The dead man was identified as Mario Neri, 24, of San Clemente. Police said Neri was wearing a green baseball cap, no shirt and jeans with a gun in the waistband.

A group of 45 people who had gathered at the scene to protest the shooting was dispersed about 9 p.m. Sunday by police. No arrests were made, and police reported that one officer was hit by a rock and injured slightly.

Neri was first seen by an area resident who called police to report a “suspicious” person whose face was bloody as he walked north in an alley off the 700 block of North El Camino Real.

Responding at 4:16 p.m., two police officers found Neri lying down at the east end of Bonita Park, according to a press release issued by the Police Department. The officers ordered him in both English and Spanish not to move, according to the release. Instead he pulled the gun from his waistband and pointed it at the officers, prompting them to fire, according to the official police statement.

Neri was pronounced dead at the scene, Lt. Paul Falk said.

It was the fifth time this year in Orange County that a death resulted from police action.

In May, a homeless man was fatally shot by Santa Ana police after two officers saw what they described as illegal activity taking place. The victim, Roberto Duarte, 50, was a homeless man described by acquaintances as a heroin addict, who weighed less than 100 pounds and was unarmed.

Santa Ana police shot and killed Jose Muniz in May as officers responded to a report of a disturbance at a home. Muniz, 18, was wrestling with one police officer when he was fatally wounded.

In April, a Costa Mesa police officer shot and killed Jamie Rubio, 20, a suspect in a drug investigation who authorities said opened fire on officers. The officer who shot Rubio was wearing a flak jacket, and was struck in the lower back and spine and was hospitalized.

Police sharpshooters fatally wounded a man in February after he reportedly killed an acquaintance and then fired at police and a helicopter while barricading himself in a van. The dead man was Thomas Charles Cayer, 45.

In 1989, a record 29 people were shot by police officers countywide, 12 of them fatally. That compared to 20 fatal and non-fatal officer-involved shootings in 1988 and 10 in 1987.

Among cities, Santa Ana and Anaheim--the county’s two most populous municipalities--had the highest number of officer-involved shootings: Santa Ana seven and Anaheim five.

Besides the human toll, the rash of officer-involved shootings from 1987 to 1989 prompted at least 15 lawsuits and liability claims alleging wrongful death and excessive use of force.

The legal actions sought millions of dollars in damages and raised questions about police conduct that culminated in the creation of a committee of the Orange County Police Chiefs and Sheriff’s Assn. to discuss the use of deadly force, as a prelude to developing guidelines and recommendations for the county’s 24 law enforcement agencies.

Sunday’s shooting resulted in both officers--whose names were not released--being taken off patrol for debriefing, Falk said. The shooting is being investigated by the district attorney’s office, he said.

The scene of the shooting is in the vicinity of a girls’ and boys’ club.