Man Kills 2 Officers, Takes Own Life : Violence: Bay Area gunman severely wounds his wife and teen-age son. He was under a court order to stay away from his family.

A man who was under court order to stay away from his family shot and killed two Richmond police officers, wounded his wife and 14-year-old son and then took his own life early Monday morning, police said.

Both officers, who were wearing bulletproof vests, were shot in the head with a high-powered rifle as they reached the top of the stairs inside the two-story apartment where the family lived, said Richmond Police Sgt. Mike Pon.

The officers had their guns drawn, but apparently were shot by 52-year-old Jay Choe when he emerged suddenly from a bedroom, Pon said. Choe then shot his wife, Yon Soon, three times and his son, Joohn, once and turned the rifle on himself.

The Choes’ 16-year-old daughter, Amy, escaped unharmed after calling police from a downstairs telephone and reporting that she could hear her father breaking furniture upstairs.

When the shooting stopped, police dispatchers were unable to raise the officers by radio, and no more sounds came from the house. But police decided against entering the house while they assembled the Richmond SWAT team.

After 1 1/2 hours, Joohn Choe, wounded in the abdomen, crawled out the front door. He told police that his mother was wounded and that his father and the two officers were dead.

“It was a tough decision by the sergeant at the scene to wait,” Pon said. “He didn’t want to jeopardize other officers by entering.”

The dead officers were identified as Leonard Garcia, 31, a 6 1/2-year veteran of the force who was single, and David Haynes, 30, a 4 1/2-year veteran who was married with two children.

Police in Richmond, a working-class city across the bay from San Francisco, had become familiar with Jay Choe because of previous calls from the family to settle domestic disputes. Pon would not say whether the man had been arrested in the past, only that “he had prior contacts with the Police Department.”

In July, 1990, Yon Soon Choe obtained a restraining order requiring her estranged husband to stay at least 500 yards from her and the two children.

The Choes had been married for 15 years and had lived for part of that time in South Korea. In recent months, Jay Choe had apparently been living on the East Coast.

Joohn and Yon Soon Choe were taken by ambulance and helicopter to John Muir Medical Center in Walnut Creek. She was reported in critical condition with wounds to the chest and leg while her son remained in serious but stable condition.