Motorists’ Attacks on Officers

The fatal shooting Dec. 27 of Manhattan Beach Police Officer Martin Ganz was only the latest in a series of incidents in recent years in which Southland police officers have been attacked during what appeared to be routine traffic stops:

* Aug. 6, 1993: Long Beach Police Officer Abel Dominguez was shot and critically wounded by friends of a motorist he had taken into custody in his patrol car. As Dominguez, who survived the attack, sat working at the car’s computer console, two men approached the car, fired at him and fled with the motorist. Two suspects were later arrested.

* March 9, 1993: A motorcyclist on a quiet residential street in Garden Grove gunned down veteran Officer Howard E. Dallies Jr., who apparently had pulled over the cyclist. Neighbors who heard the shots and called 911 ran outside to find Dallies dying after being shot several times point-blank. The fatal bullet lodged in his abdomen, just below his bulletproof vest.

* Feb. 22, 1993: Compton Police Officers Kevin Michael Burrell and James Wayne MacDonald were killed by occupants of a red pickup they had stopped. Emerging from the truck firing, the occupants shot both officers several times; they died shortly afterward in a nearby hospital.

* Feb. 4, 1993: An unidentified Anaheim motorcycle officer escaped with minor injuries after a motorist he had stopped rammed his car into the officer’s motorcycle, knocking him to the ground. The officer fired several shots at the car, and the driver and his passenger were arrested a short time later. A San Pedro man was arrested in April.

* Feb. 3, 1991: Two unidentified Los Angeles police officers were shot in North Hollywood as they tried to pull over the driver of a black sedan. Both officers recovered, but the driver, who turned out to be a wanted felon, died after the officers’ return of his gunfire.

* Aug. 21, 1990: Los Angeles Traffic Officer Marvin Portillo was issuing a ticket for an expired registration of a car in the Wilshire district when the owner tried to run him over. The officer jumped onto the hood of the car to avoid being hit and was driven wildly around the neighborhood as the driver, who was later arrested, tried to shake him off.

* April 15, 1990: An unidentified Tustin police officer was shot at by a motorist who leaped out of his car after the officer pulled him over, then scuffled with the officer before pulling out a handgun and firing. The man missed, and police tracked him down and arrested him a few hours later.

* Aug. 13, 1989: Garden Grove Police Officer Darrow Halligan escaped injury when a motorist he had pulled over for running a stop sign shot twice at him. The motorist and a companion got out of the car and fled, with the motorist turning around and firing at Halligan as he chased them.

* June 3, 1989: An unidentified Buena Park police officer suffered a broken collarbone and cuts when a man he had stopped for making an illegal U-turn jumped into the officer’s patrol car and drove off, dragging the officer as the two wrestled for control of the car. Police arrested the 19-year-old man.

* Oct. 26, 1988: Wilbur Carter, a Los Angeles motorcycle officer, escaped injury when a motorist with an Uzi machine gun opened fire on him in midday in Westwood Village. Carter had attempted to pull over the motorist for a traffic violation in the busy commercial area when the driver suddenly spun around and sped away, firing as he passed the officer.

* Jan. 9, 1988: California Highway Patrol Officer Gary Baker was shot in the face when he stopped a driver in Glassell Park. Baker survived after doctors removed a bullet that had lodged in his brain.

* Jan. 9, 1988: Los Angeles Police Officers Mike Laggart and Paul Nelson suffered minor injuries in Pacoima when a truck driver they pulled over for erratic driving attacked them with a four-inch hunting knife. The officers managed to knock the knife from the man’s hand, subdue him and arrest him.

* Jan. 9, 1988: San Diego Police Officer Jerry Hartless was shot in the head by one of the occupants of a car he and his partner were trying to pull over. He died on Jan. 31. Six gang members were arrested.