Accounts of Fatal Shooting by Police Vary : Law enforcement: Slain man’s family claim Los Alamitos officers overreacted and fired ‘indiscriminately,’ but officials say man ignored repeated orders to drop his gun.

Sylvan Randall Byrd’s Saturday started calmly. He tinkered in his garage a bit, then decided he would lay out and bask in the weekend sunshine. One new neighbor said Byrd told her to holler if she needed any help moving into their two-story apartment building.

By 6 p.m., Byrd was lying in a pool of blood on his kitchen floor, next to a garbage bag and a recycling bin full of empty soda cans.

Byrd--a 40-year-old truck driver and ex-Marine--became the first victim of a police officer-involved shooting in Orange County this year.

Los Alamitos police said that a pair of officers went to Byrd’s apartment--No. 4 at 3572 Howard Ave.--after a neighbor complained about a fight between Byrd and his wife, Ellen. Byrd, police said, came to the door carrying a handgun.

Lt. Randy Blair of the Orange County Sheriff’s Department, which is investigating the shooting, said in a news release that Byrd “ignored repeated orders to drop the gun” and the Los Alamitos police officers then shot at him a number of times.

But Byrd’s family and friends on Sunday claimed police overreacted, firing their guns “indiscriminately,” according to an investigator hired by the family. They said Byrd did not aim his gun or fire it at police, but acknowledge that he came to the door with a handgun.

Ellen Byrd, 40, said in a brief interview Sunday that she and her husband were scared when they heard loud banging on their door and didn’t realize until it was too late that the police were outside.

“They didn’t say anything. Just ‘Bang, bang, bang’ (knocking on the door). That is what scared us. My husband went to answer the door. He had his gun behind him on his side because we didn’t know who they were,” she said, crying hysterically.

“He would never, never shoot the police,” she said. “They never said anything. They never said who they were. . . . They just shot and shot and shot. They shot through the door, all through the door.”

A neighbor, however, reported hearing the police officers identify themselves.

Bullet holes--which family members said were made by shots fired by police--are scattered throughout the Byrds’ apartment. They are lodged in the kitchen floor, countertop, refrigerator and microwave.

One passed through a kitchen wall and into the couple’s bedroom. Three more bullet holes are in a hallway and one bullet evidently penetrated the Byrds’ shower and ended up in a neighbor’s apartment, according to Byrd’s family.

Byrd’s family has found at least 12 bullet holes in the apartment.

“They just shot him and kept shooting him until he was dead,” said Dennis Byrd, the victim’s brother.

The Orange County Sheriff’s Department, which investigates officer-involved shootings for a number of local police departments, including Los Alamitos, declined to answer questions pending the outcome of the investigation. Los Alamitos police also declined comment on the family’s allegations Sunday.

Byrd’s family has hired a Downey-based private investigator and an attorney.

“What I see here is that a lot of bullets were fired, it would appear indiscriminately,” said Robert Feliciano, who said he is a consultant specializing in police procedures and policies hired by the Byrd family’s attorney.

On Saturday at 5:45 p.m., police received a call from one of Byrd’s neighbors reporting a domestic disturbance in Byrd’s apartment.

“We are unable to characterize the nature of the disturbance, but loud music and yelling was heard,” according to the police news release. Family members said the Byrds were arguing about a prospective move to Idaho.

Once at the Byrds’ apartment, police began knocking on their door.

The Byrds’ neighbor--the same woman he offered to help a few hours earlier--was standing at the foot of the steps that lead to both her and the Byrds’ apartments. Police asked the woman--who requested anonymity--to remain downstairs.

“First they were listening” at the Byrds’ door, the woman said. Then she heard: “ ‘Open the door, open the door. It’s the police,’ ” she said.

Then, the woman said, police asked to see what Byrd had in his hands.

“They said, ‘Show me your hands’ over and over. They were saying everything repeatedly,” the woman said.

Gunfire soon erupted. “Then it was like a war zone. It sounded like all-out war,” she said. “It was frightening as hell.”

Ron Woodring, a family friend, said he accompanied Ellen Byrd to police headquarters and had been asked by the family to give their version of events.

After the Byrds heard pounding at their front door, Ellen Byrd “walked into the kitchen and Sylvan walked into the other room and came back with his gun,” Woodring said. “He came back to the door. As he was looking through the peephole, he cracked” open the door.

Ellen Byrd “just heard the gunshots, the door is flying open and she sees Randy falling on the ground. The police followed,” Woodring said.

Police “put a gun to her head” and said, ‘Raise your hands,’ ” Woodring said. Flustered, Ellen Byrd hesitated for a second and police again ordered her to raise her hands, Woodring said. She then followed the command, Woodring said.

Family members claimed the police started shooting at Byrd through the couple’s front door, which they said was removed by investigators Saturday evening as evidence.

Ellen Byrd “began yelling: ‘Do something for him. Help him.’ And they weren’t,” Woodring said. “They didn’t care if anyone was in the line of their fire. They emptied their clips.”

Sylvan Randall Byrd was taken to Los Alamitos Medical Center, where he died.

Byrd’s family portrayed him Sunday as a law-abiding citizen who once had aspirations of being a police officer or a Border Patrol agent.

“He would have given his right arm to be a policeman, but they told him he was too old,” said John Teschke, a friend of Byrd’s from Long Beach.

Byrd had worked as a bank security guard and as a private investigator in Alaska, his family said. Byrd taught Woodring’s 11-year-old son how to use a firearm, Woodring said.

“My boy was like his son,” Byrd said.

Family and friends said Sunday they’re sure Byrd didn’t realize he was dealing with the police.

“If he knew there were police at the door, he never would have carried a weapon,” Woodring said. He added that Byrd may have recognized the police too late and avoided dropping the gun “for fear it would discharge.”

The Byrds had moved to Los Alamitos from Los Angeles just after the civil unrest there last year, friends said.

“He moved here to get away from trouble,” Teschke said.

* SUSPECTS SHOT: A Fullerton police officer responding to a report of attempted car theft shot and wounded two suspects. B4