Officer Killed After Stopping Motorcyclist : Violence: Garden Grove veteran was on patrol alone. He had not radioed his station before he was shot.

A veteran police officer was shot and killed on a quiet residential street before dawn Tuesday, apparently gunned down at close range by a motorcyclist who acted so suddenly that the officer never had a chance to draw his weapon.

Howard E. Dallies Jr., 36, a nine-year member of the city’s police force, became the first Orange County officer in three years to die in the line of duty, killed by a bullet that tore into his abdomen just below his bulletproof vest.

Describing him as an officer who went by the book, saddened colleagues were mystified as to why Dallies, who was patrolling alone a couple of hours into his late-night shift, did not radio in his location or the license number of the motorcycle when he made the fatal traffic stop.

“Of all the guys in this department, Howard would be the last guy you would think would let his guard down,” said Sgt. George Jaramillo. “He was always so careful.”

Dallies died of the abdominal wound about 6 a.m. at UC Irvine Medical Center in Orange after a team of 10 surgeons tried frantically for two hours to save him, authorities said.

Police immediately launched a search for Dallies’ killer and the motorcycle, described as a recently stolen gray Kawasaki. On Tuesday afternoon officers located a motorcycle matching that description less than a mile from the scene of the shooting, but they had not made any arrests or released the name of a suspect.

Police from neighboring cities joined in the search for Dallies’ assailant throughout the day.

The 2:45 a.m. shooting in a normally quiet, middle-class neighborhood of single-family homes sent terrified residents into the street. As one neighbor phoned 911, another groped for Dallies’ pulse and used the radio in Dallies’ cruiser to call police.

Charles North, 29, a political consultant who was lying in bed reading a book when the shooting occurred, said: “I heard, ‘Pop pop pop, pop pop pop,’ and my first thought was, ‘Who did I piss off?’ It was that close”

The slaying occurred 15 days after the execution-style killings of two Compton police officers during a traffic stop. Police said there was no apparent link between the shootings.

In Garden Grove, as in Compton, the officer inexplicably disregarded department guidelines in not stopping to radio his position or a description of the vehicle being pulled over before leaving his police cruiser.

“There are 101 reasons why an officer doesn’t call it in,” said Capt. David Abrecht of the Garden Grove Police Department. “My knowledge of Howard is that he’s not a careless officer. He’s a very solid veteran officer that people actually look up to as a role model.”

And, as in the Compton case, the fact that Dallies did not call in “gives rise to questions about whether he knew the subject,” said Jaramillo.

“We encourage (calling in) in light of what happened in Compton,” Jaramillo said, noting, however, that “our officers are professionals and they are not mandated to.”

The last time police dispatchers heard from Dallies was about 30 minutes before the shooting, when he pulled over a vehicle in a different part of the city. Detectives do not believe there was any connection between that stop and the shooting.

Half an hour later, the sound of gunshots tore through the Garden Grove neighborhood, startling residents who said they saw a motorcycle speed away. Witnesses found Dallies in a pool of blood a few feet from his police cruiser, his handgun in his holster. One resident, Jessie Brown, grabbed the microphone of the police radio in Dallies’ car and called for help. Brown said he found a pulse on Dallies’ wrist. “The police were very fast arriving, maybe two minutes. Then we moved back and they started to help him,” Brown said.

Some officers had tears in their eyes as they tended to Dallies, whose face was also grazed by a bullet. Empty shells littered the ground nearby, residents said. Police said six shots had been fired.

“The police said ‘Hang on, Howard, we love you,’ ” said Christine North, who has lived in the neighborhood for seven years. “That touched me. They cared so much for him. They tried so hard to save him. I hoped and prayed he would make it, but he didn’t.”

As officers transported him to the hospital, Dallies, still conscious, gave a description of the motorcycle and its driver to officers, Jaramillo said.

Dr. Kenneth Waxman, director of UCI Medical Center trauma service, led a team of about 10 doctors and 12 nurses in a futile attempt to save Dallies’ life.

“He was unconscious when he was brought in, and he never regained consciousness,” said Waxman. “He was bleeding into his abdomen and chest. He was very critically injured and in profound shock.”

Investigators said they have no clues as to why Dallies was shot. “As far as the whys and the wheres, we’re still working on that,” Jaramillo said.

Of Dallies, Abrecht said, “He had a respect of the violence out there. He hadn’t made it to the point where he was so hardened or so afraid of everything. How this situation occurred when he walked up to the suspect is still a mystery.”

Dallies is survived by his wife, Mary, an Irvine police dispatcher, and sons ages 4 and 7. He graduated from the Orange County Sheriff’s Academy in 1978 and went to work as a deputy assigned to the Central Jail in Santa Ana, officials said.

In 1979, Dallies transferred to Placentia, where he was a patrol officer and later worked for a special enforcement detail that focused on vice and narcotics investigations.

“You couldn’t find a better officer, or a more sincere, honest and compassionate man. It is a very sad day for all of us in Garden Grove,” said Mayor Frank Kessler, who was police chief when Dallies was hired.

Dallies, who joined the Garden Grove Police Department in 1984, was working toward a promotion as sergeant.

Lt. William Dalton said Dallies “was an excellent officer and he was a very warm human being. There’s not that much I can say. That pretty much covers it all. He was a hell of a cop.”

In the wake of the shooting, Orange County supervisors ordered the county’s flags flown at half staff. Municipal flags at the civic center were also flown at half staff.

“The talk is one of shock,” Abrecht said. “When we first came in this morning we knew that Howard had been seriously wounded but he might survive. Then all of the sudden, around 6 a.m. the word came down that he had passed away.”

“I’m kind of still in shock,” said Lt. John Woods, who said he knew Dallies for several years. Woods said a psychologist spoke with all the officers who responded to the call.

“Things that happen like this may not affect them today, but may affect them a few days from now or even later,” Woods said.

Times staff writers Matt Lait, Rene Lynch, David A. Avila, Eric Lichtblau, Jodi Wilgoren, Bill Billiter and correspondent Robert Barker contributed to this report.