O.C. Deputy Is Killed During Training Drill

An eight-year veteran of the Orange County Sheriff’s Department was shot and killed by a bullet from a fellow deputy’s handgun during an impromptu training session, sheriff’s officials said Sunday.

Deputy Darryn Leroy Robbins, 30, died Christmas Day after being hit by a single shot. The deputies were simulating a “car stop” behind the Edwards El Toro movie theater, Sheriff’s Lt. Daniel Martini said in a prepared statement.

Robbins, married and the father of a 17-month-old daughter, was sitting in his patrol car when he was shot, Lt. Tom Garner said.

Doug Miller, a senior district attorney’s investigator, said Robbins was killed by “another deputy’s weapon” but would not say how many deputies had been participating in the training session where Robbins was shot, nor whether the shooting appeared to be accidental.

“We are not going to draw any conclusions,” he said. “That’s what the investigation is all about.”

The district attorney’s office routinely investigates officer-involved shootings.

Capt. Bob Kemmis said such informal training exercises are common but declined to comment further, citing the investigation.

The sheriff’s department released a two-page statement 27 hours after the shooting but declined to provide additional details. Officials would not identify any of the other deputies involved in the training session, nor how the gun was fired.

“Deputies assigned a patrol function in the Lake Forest area met in an area behind the Twin Peaks Plaza to discuss and conduct informal training scenarios regarding officer safety during car stops,” Martini said in the prepared statement.

“During this training meeting, the deputies created a car-stop situation. At some time during the training session one of the deputies’ weapons fired a single round, mortally wounding Deputy Darryn Leroy Robbins.”

Robbins was pronounced dead on arrival at Saddleback Memorial Hospital in Mission Viejo on Saturday afternoon.

The sheriff’s department lauded Robbins as an officer who “was admired by his peers and supervisors for his positive attitude and motivated drive to achieve.”

Robbins, who lived in Torrance, was well known in the Lake Forest area, particularly for his determination to keep youths out of gangs, sheriff’s officials said. He had received numerous letters of commendation over the years.

“Deputy Robbins believed in the youth of today,” Martini said in the statement. “He was recognized in the community for his service in educating school-aged children in the Lake Forest area on the dangers of gangs.

“Deputy Robbins helped these children by developing a self-respect and resistance to gangs. He was truly an officer who cared, and his memory will not be forgotten in the community he served.”

Robbins is survived by his wife, Rosemary; their daughter; his mother, Mildred Fisher, and sisters Venita Davis, Vanessa Ratliff and Laronda Magee.

“The entire law enforcement community mourns the loss of our brother officer,” Sheriff Brad Gates said. “His death is difficult for us to comprehend. I ask that we all call upon our strength as a family and a community and offer support to the Robbins family and the deputies involved.”

Robbins was the 32nd Orange County law enforcement officer, and the fifth from the sheriff’s department, to be killed on duty since 1912. Funeral arrangements were pending.