Two Compton Officers Slain in Traffic Stop : Violence: Occupants of a red pickup truck emerge firing and are still at large. Grieving city is outraged.

Two Compton police officers who pulled over a suspicious-looking red pickup truck were shot and killed late Monday night in a storm of gunfire, marking the first shooting deaths of on-duty officers in the Police Department’s 65-year history, authorities said.

The slayings of Officers Kevin Michael Burrell, 29, and James Wayne MacDonald, 23, by at least two assailants who remained at large drew tears and outrage Tuesday in the largely blue-collar, crime-marred suburb southeast of Los Angeles. Many regarded the killings as an especially painful blow to a town struggling to overcome its reputation as the murder capital of Los Angeles County.

“Everybody thinks that Compton, because it has a high crime rate, is used to this, but this has never happened here before,” a crying Lt. Gary Anderson, a close friend of Burrell, said at a City Hall news conference where police disclosed only sketchy details of the attack.

MacDonald, a reserve officer who had been recruited from Cal State Long Beach in 1991, was working his final day with the Compton Police Department. He had been hired by the San Jose Police Department and was scheduled to start work there March 8, according to a Compton police spokesman.

Burrell, a full-time officer since 1988, joined the department as a 15-year-old Explorer Scout. He was described as a devoted policeman who knew every street and seemingly every resident in the city of 90,000. “He knew all the young people here,” Anderson said. “He was very friendly . . . a very loving kid.”

The officers were shot shortly after 11 p.m. Monday after stopping the pickup truck for what police called a “possible traffic violation of suspicious circumstance” at Rosecrans and Dwight avenues. The occupants emerged from the truck and opened fire, striking each officer several times, Compton Lt. Joe Flores said.

Although both officers were wearing bulletproof vests, they fell to the street. Witnesses reported the shootings, Flores said, and the officers were rushed to Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center, where they died a short time later.

At least 18 investigators are involved in the case. Police were still interviewing witnesses Tuesday, Flores said. But the spokesman declined to say how many witnesses had seen the attack and withheld other information about the incident, including the nature of the wounds, for fear of jeopardizing the investigation. He declined to say why the pickup had been considered suspicious, but discounted the theory that the officers had been ambushed by the assailants.

Flores said investigators were still trying to determine the make and model of the pickup, an issue that raised questions about whether the two young officers had followed department recommendations that vehicles’ license plates be checked by computer at the beginning of a traffic stop.

Because Compton police cars are not equipped with mobile computers, officers in the 127-member department typically run their computer checks by calling a police dispatcher.

“If it was a traffic stop . . . the normal procedure is to call in,” Rickey Petty, a Compton detective, said. “They did not tell dispatch anything.”

Flores declined to elaborate on the matter, saying the truck “could have had expired plates, could have had missing plates. . . . A lot of things could have gone wrong. I was told not to give that information out.”

Lt. Gary Lee, who heads the Tactics Training Section of the Los Angeles Police Academy, said recruits there are taught to record license numbers at any traffic stop and to run them through the computer to check for traffic warrants or stolen vehicles. The computer makes a record of the request, he said, adding that the procedure is advisory and not required.

Residents of Compton, which recorded 82 homicides in 1988--representing a higher murder rate per capita than either Los Angeles or Washington, D.C.--have been striving to improve the community through block clubs and other programs. The number of murders dropped sharply to 59 last year, Flores said.

The slayings raised the number of countywide law enforcement personnel killed while on duty to 39 since 1985. According to Flores, “all kinds of gangs have been mentioned” in connection with the incident, but only in rumors. It is possible that more than two assailants were involved, he added.

Police arrested two men in a red pickup truck, then cleared them of the killings while holding them in jail on other charges. Flores declined to release their names or the reason for their arrests.

The Compton City Council, meanwhile, canceled its scheduled meeting Tuesday night. Instead, council members were paying visits to the Ramada Hotel to offer condolences to members of the MacDonald family, who had arrived from Santa Rosa after the slayings.

Meanwhile, the city of Compton and the County Board of Supervisors were offering a $25,000 reward for information leading to the arrests of the killers, and Compton police had set up a toll-free information number, (800) 954-1000.

“We’re all in a state of shock and disbelief, of course, and very, very hurt,” said Shirley Qualls, a secretary at City Hall, fighting to control a quavering voice as she awaited a TV newscast.

She described the emotional impact on City Hall workers as worse than that felt after last spring’s riots, in which 43 buildings in Compton were destroyed or damaged in one night. “We’re all like a big family here,” she said. “What hurts one hurts all.”

Warren Washington, president of Compton College, said the deaths marred the grand opening Tuesday of a job-training center created in the aftermath of last year’s violence.

“We in Compton have been the target of a lot of negative perceptions,” Washington said. “This, unfortunately, creates another negative perception of the city, which is not what the city is all about.”

Reserve officers vowed to continue their work despite Monday’s shootings. “It’s hard. It’s like losing a family member,” said Frank Garces, 65, the city’s oldest reserve officer.

Meanwhile, Officer Veronica Damon, a spokesman for the San Jose Police Department, described MacDonald as “definitely the role model . . . we were looking for. I’m sure he would have been a fine officer.”

Burrell was a spirited officer who never thought about dying on duty, recalled his friend Greg S. Woods, 29, an employee at a Compton school who spent part of Tuesday standing at the intersection were Burrell was killed, trying to understand it.

“He loved the city--this was all he knew,” Woods said. “It wasn’t about how many people he could take to jail, but how many lives he could touch. I will miss him.”

THE FALLEN: A list of 23 officers shot to death in the line of duty since 1985. B2

Officers Slain

Two Compton police officers were shot and killed on Monday.

A) Late Monday, officers are heading westbound on Rosecrans on patrol.

B) Officers stop a truck for “possible traffic violation.” During the stop, officers are shot. About 11:20 p.m., police receive calls from citizens reporting gunfire.

C) Officers are taken to Martin Luther King Jr.-Drew Medical Center.

Source: Times staff reports