Motorcycle May Lead to Officer’s Killer

More than 30 police investigators spent a second day Wednesday chasing leads and examining fingerprints taken from a stolen motorcycle in their search for the killer of a veteran patrol officer.

Garden Grove police said they were confident that the gray Kawasaki motorcycle found abandoned not far from the shooting scene is linked to the slaying early Tuesday of Officer Howard E. Dallies Jr., 36. And they were hopeful that fingerprints taken from the vehicle could be traced through a statewide computer system.

As of late Wednesday, however, investigators had no suspects in the killing of Dallies, who was shot three times. The motorcycle, which carried illegally switched license plates and was reported stolen from an address on Maureen Drive in Garden Grove about a week before the shooting, matched the description Dallies gave before he lost consciousness and died in an Orange County trauma center.

“There are a lot of coincidences,” Lt. J.A. Woods said of the motorcycle. “If it ends up not being the proper motorcycle, we’ll be surprised.”

Woods said they believe that the suspect had been riding the motorcycle for at least a day. He encouraged anyone who may have seen such a motorcycle to contact police.

Dallies was shot on Aldgate Avenue, a residential street just off Brookhurst Street in north Garden Grove, police said. The fatal shot lodged just below his bulletproof vest. Neighbors, awakened by the shooting, called for police at 2:46 a.m. Tuesday.

Authorities now believe that Dallies was making a traffic stop at the time he was shot. But they had few details because he did not radio his location or a description of the vehicle before leaving his police cruiser.

Although it was not immediately clear how Dallies came into contact with the motorcyclist, detectives said they believe that he did make the motorcyclist pull over.

Authorities said they do not think there is any connection between the motorist whose license plate was stolen and the shooting.

Police also said they conducted a telephone interview late Tuesday with the motorcycle’s owner, who was in Arizona. Officers are not focusing on that person as linked to the slaying, Sgt. George Jaramillo said.