Circumstances of Deputy’s Shooting Raise Questions : Sheriff’s: A trainee and another officer were present when Darryn Leroy Robins was killed, officials say. Impromptu training session may have violated police safety standards, experts say.

As new details emerged Monday about the Christmas Day shooting death of a veteran Orange County Sheriff’s Department deputy, community leaders and law enforcement experts questioned whether an impromptu training session that apparently led to the tragedy may have violated basic standards of police safety.

Sheriff’s officials disclosed that a training officer and a trainee were present when Deputy Darryn Leroy Robins, 30, was fatally shot behind a Lake Forest movie theater during an informal midafternoon safety session.

In their only official explanation, authorities said Sunday--about 27 hours after the incident--that Robins was hit by a single shot from another deputy’s gun while they were simulating a car stop at a lot behind the Edwards El Toro movie theater at the Twin Peaks Plaza. But authorities refused to say who fired the fatal shot or discuss other details.

A law enforcement official familiar with the case, however, said that the person who fired the fatal bullet was the field-training officer on the scene with Robins.

“The need for ongoing training is obvious, but there are procedures, and I don’t know what they were doing out there,” the source said.

“What the hell were they doing with a (loaded) gun? That’s the first thing you ask,” the source said. “You don’t draw your weapon in the field unless you plan to use it.”

Other law-enforcement experts specializing in safety training also questioned the circumstances of the shooting, which one sheriff’s official said has devastated the department.

“What we would like to find out is why they were having this training out there (in public) and why they didn’t clear (remove the bullets from) the weapon,” said Officer John Service, adjutant at the Los Angeles Police Department training academy.

“We confine our training, especially practical situation simulation, to city property, to headquarters or to the academy. We don’t go over to a local shopping center; it’s just not done,” Service said.

Glen Fine, deputy executive director of the state’s Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training, said that on a quiet day, “it would not be that unusual” for a deputy to break from normal patrols to walk a new officer through an exercise and “go over tactics.”

Fine stressed that he was not familiar with the details of the Lake Forest incident. But in general, he said: “It’s well-accepted by everyone involved with firearms training that you never point a weapon at another person--loaded or unloaded. ... It’s an axiom.”

Robins, who lived in Torrance, was married and the father of a 17-month-old daughter. He was known in the Lake Forest area for his determination to keep youths out of gangs, sheriff’s officials said.

Officials at the Orange County district attorney’s office said that they will review the shooting to determine whether criminal charges are warranted, but they refused to release any details on the probe because they said it might influence potential witnesses.

Several Lake Forest City Council members, unaware that the Sheriff’s Department conducted informal training while patrolling their area, said they want to ensure that the district attorney pursues a full investigation.

“Certainly, there are a lot of questions we need to have answered,” Councilwoman Ann Van Haun said. “As a council, we want to assure our citizens that this is not something (deputies) do all the time, so they don’t need to be afraid of such a thing. . . . Why they would do this at this time and exactly what happened remains to be seen.”

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Times staff writer Len Hall contributed to this report.