Sheriff Gates Discusses Fatal Case : Law enforcement: Orange County department will review procedures in the wake of officer’s shooting. He was killed during an impromptu training session behind a mall.

Orange County Sheriff Brad Gates, breaking his virtual silence on the Christmas Day shooting death of a veteran deputy, acknowledged for the first time Tuesday that internal policies were broken during an impromptu training session that led to the fatality.

Gates also vowed that once a criminal inquiry into the shooting is completed, sheriff’s officials would review training procedures, which have come under attack from some community leaders in the wake of Deputy Darryn Leroy Robins’ death.

Robins was shot in the head by another deputy who was using a loaded weapon during the training drill, officials said. “I don’t know the facts at this point, but obviously a shooting took place that doesn’t appear to follow department policies,” Gates said. “There are obviously going to be problems once I get the facts.”

The sheriff, who had been unwilling to discuss issues of department training policy since Robins’ death, said Tuesday that the shooting and the training session appear to conflict with rules for the use of loaded weapons.

“You don’t train and utilize loaded weapons. You don’t have your finger on the trigger,” Gates said. “The policy clearly states that. Anyone that deals with guns in law enforcement understands that from the day they come into this business.”

Robins, 30, was killed by fellow Deputy Brian Scanlan just after 2 p.m. on Dec. 25 during what was described as an informal training exercise in a lot behind a mall movie theater in Lake Forest. The Orange County district attorney’s office is trying to determine whether Scanlan fired the fatal shot in response to seeing Robins reach for a gun from his car’s visor during the re-enactment of a traffic stop.

The district attorney’s office is investigating the shooting to determine whether criminal charges--such as involuntary manslaughter or other counts in the area of criminal negligence--should be filed against Scanlan, a former Army private.

Gates said Scanlan, 32, of Anaheim also could face disciplinary action ranging from a letter of reprimand to firing once the department begins an internal review of its own. That is likely to take months.

In the days following the shooting, Gates and his department have come under increasing criticism from some community leaders and law enforcement experts who question why the deputies were training with a loaded weapon and whether they should have used a public mall for a drill during the day.

Gates has largely refused to discuss the case since the outset, but he agreed to an interview with The Times in response to what he considered unfair criticism in the media.

The central issue in the case, he said, remains a mystery.

“The question here for all of us is why was the gun loaded and why were they doing a training exercise with a loaded weapon,” Gates said. “That is the bottom line question we all want answered. Until we are able to get the information from the D.A. to complete the factual situation and look at that, we won’t be able to answer that.”

A number of elected leaders from around the county have questioned whether officers should be conducting training exercises at public sites, saying they were unaware before the shooting that such practices existed. Gates said his department would review the policy once prosecutors complete their investigation to determine whether changes will be filed.

“In any situation where something has gone wrong, we sit down and review our entire policy,” he said. “We review everything in place to make sure that we can continue that policy if it is a sound one. If it needs to be adjusted, we adjust it. We will do that in this case.”

Gates said such informal training sessions “are done frequently in every law enforcement agency that I am aware of. . . . We see that they are done safely. We try to make sure that they are done in ways that don’t endanger the deputies or the public.”