Officers Kill Pistol-Wielding Santa Ana Man : Shooting: Police say they opened fire when he pointed a handgun at them, but a witness claims he had been disarmed.

Two police officers fatally shot a Santa Ana man in his bedroom after he pointed a handgun at them, authorities said Monday.

The officers tried to disarm Rigoberto Hernandez, 33, and then struggled with him when he resisted, police said.

The shooting, which occurred Sunday night in Hernandez’s residence at 814 S. Sycamore St., came only after the man aimed his pistol at the officers, police said.

Neither of the police officers, whom authorities refused to identify, was injured.

The police version of events was contradicted by a woman who said that she witnessed the shooting and that Hernandez had already been disarmed when the police opened fire.

The officers involved in the incident, however, reported that Hernandez was still in possession of his firearm when the shooting occurred, according to Lt. Robert Helton.

One of the officers had tried unsuccessfully to wrest the gun away from Hernandez, police said, and both officers opened fire after Hernandez pointed the gun at them, Helton said. The officers said they opened fire because they feared for their lives.

Hernandez’s common-law wife, Julia Sanchez Mendoza, 35, said she was present in the small bedroom, holding the couple’s month-old child, Neyda, and witnessed the shooting at close range. She agreed that Hernandez was holding a pistol when police came to the room but said that he never pointed it at the officers and did not provoke a confrontation.

She said one of the officers grabbed Hernandez when he was near the bedroom’s doorway, wrenched the gun from his hand and then forced him to the ground. Both officers then opened fire, shooting the prone figure of Hernandez at least three times--twice with their service weapons and once with Hernandez’s own pistol, Mendoza said.

“He was not able to defend himself because the police had taken the pistol,” Mendoza said in Spanish as she stood in the bloodstained doorway where her common-law husband died.

Police disputed Mendoza’s account. “The allegation that we took his weapon and shot him is totally inaccurate,” Helton said. He said Mendoza “may have been in the room, but she was not a witness to the events.”

Helton repeated police assertions that there were no witnesses to the shooting. He declined to comment on Mendoza’s whereabouts during the shooting, citing the department’s policy against public comment during investigations. The department’s internal affairs unit and the Orange County district attorney’s office, which routinely investigates fatal officer-involved shootings, are both looking into the incident.

Helton also declined to say whether the officers had succeeded in taking away Hernandez’s gun at any point in the struggle.

The officers had been dispatched to the area about 10:40 p.m. Sunday to investigate a report of shots being fired, Helton said.

Mike Isaacs, 33, who lives at 825 S. Sycamore St., said he called police after a bullet tore through the window of his second-story living room, where his girlfriend’s two daughters, 9 and 15, were playing.

Shortly after police arrived, a neighbor told police that Hernandez was the one who had been shooting and told officers where Hernandez lived, Helton said.

Lupe Magadan, 37, Hernandez’s cousin, said he had been drinking Sunday evening and went outside to shoot his pistol in the air for fun. Hernandez kept the gun for protection, said Magadan, who opened the front door for officers about 15 minutes after Hernandez came back inside.

Hernandez “never fought with anyone,” said Magadan, who reacted to the shooting with anger Monday, as did several other family members. “He did not have problems with anyone.”

“I need justice, because killing my brother like a dog is not justice,” cried Guadalupe Hernandez, 31.

Family members said Hernandez emigrated from the Mexican state of Guerrero about three years ago. He worked for Frozsun Foods Inc. in Placentia, where he did janitorial work in a food packing section, said Deborah Lilly of the company’s human resources department.

Family members gave a different age for Hernandez than did police, saying he was 35.