Police Seeking Man Seen After Officer’s Death : Investigation: He flagged down a taxicab nearby. He isn’t considered a suspect but is wanted for questioning.

Police on Thursday were trying to find a man wanted for questioning in the death of a police officer who was conducting an early-morning traffic stop when a motorcyclist gunned him down.

Police released a composite drawing of an unidentified man who hailed a taxicab about 3 a.m. in north Garden Grove, a short distance from the street where Garden Grove Officer Howard E. Dallies Jr., 36, was fatally shot Tuesday about 15 minutes earlier.

Police said an alert cabdriver who picked up the man at the corner of Brookhurst Street and Katella Avenue and drove him to Fullerton notified police Thursday morning. Investigators said the man who took the cab is not considered a suspect in the shooting but might have some critical information.

“We’re not saying the guy is a suspect. . . . It’s more of us trying to identify a person in the area who may have something to offer,” said Capt. David Abrecht, who released an artist’s sketch of the unidentified man based on the cabdriver’s description.

“It’s a lead we’re working on. Our primary reason is to try to locate the guy and talk to him,” Abrecht said.

The “cab was flagged down, which kind of adds to the mystery,” Abrecht said.

Police do not consider the cabdriver a suspect.

Cabbie Richard Harrington, 25, said the man seemed calm and quiet during the ride. The man at first changed his mind about where he wanted to go, then gave the cabdriver a $5 tip when he was dropped off in a commercial area, in front of a bar that was closed for the night.

Harrington said he thought that it was strange that the man was by himself on a deserted street in the middle of the night but thought nothing else about it until he read about the officer’s slaying in a newspaper.

“He was the only one out there,” Harrington said. The cabdriver said he did not see anyone or anything else unusual in the area that night.

Harrington said he hailed a Garden Grove police car early Thursday to tell officers of his encounter because he wanted to help. He spent much of his day Thursday helping authorities with the artist’s rendering.

“He definitely didn’t appear like he might have just killed somebody,” said Harrington, who said the man wore a leather jacket and sat directly behind him during the ride. “I was shocked when I read about the officer and his wife and kids, and I thought I might try to help out and do my part.”

Harrington dropped the man off in the area near Harbor Boulevard and Commonwealth Avenue, police said.

Abrecht said the drawing will be turned over to Fullerton police so they can assist in the search.

Police are asking the public for any information that might help solve the slaying of Dallies, who was shot after pulling over a motorcyclist in the 10100 block of Aldgate Avenue.

“We’re looking for a (motorcycle) helmet, saddlebags that may have been on the bike, anything at all that can help,” Abrecht said. He said the helmet and saddlebag may have physical evidence such as hair that can be examined using DNA testing and could greatly assist police.

Dallies was shot three times, police said. The fatal shot ripped into the officer’s abdomen, just below the bulletproof vest the department required that he wear. He leaves behind a wife and two young sons.

The strongest lead police have so far is a gray Kawasaki motorcycle found abandoned about a quarter-mile from the shooting site. The motorcycle, which carried a stolen license plate and had itself been reported stolen from a nearby neighborhood, has been dusted for fingerprints. Officials of the cab company said the taxi also was dusted for fingerprints.

Police said they are confident that the motorcycle is the vehicle involved because it matches a description Dallies gave shortly before he lost consciousness and died at UCI Medical Center in Orange.

Police said they have not yet been able to match the fingerprints from the motorcycle with any in the statewide computerized system, called Cal-ID.

“We do have names of people who are mentioned or information comes up about people, but I would say none at this point are hard and fast suspects,” Abrecht said. “We’re still trying to examine the motorcycle and its relation to the crime.”

Police say public assistance is critical.

“At this point, we’re really relying on the public’s help,” Abrecht said. The time of the shooting has made it difficult to find witnesses who can provide investigators with solid leads, police said.

“At 2:45 a.m. in a residential neighborhood, it’s not like you have a lot of witnesses walking around,” Abrecht said. “If anybody has seen anything or heard anything that might be helpful, we’d like to know.”

Investigators believe that Dallies had stopped the motorcyclist for a traffic infraction when he was shot on the quiet avenue just off Brookhurst Street. Officials say Dallies did not radio in to his dispatcher to notify them of a traffic stop, as he had done earlier in the evening.

Police believe that the shooting happened so suddenly that Dallies did not have time to pull his weapon from his holster.

Dallies was the fifth officer to die in the history of the Garden Grove Police Department.

Abrecht said that after three days of investigation, “we’re down to that painstakingly detailed work. It’s people working a lot of hours and checking a lot of leads and maybe we’ll get a break.”