LOS ANGELES : Officers Fired Guns as Scare Tactic, Prosecutor Tells Jury

Two off-duty police officers who claim they were firing at the ground were actually trying to scare a California Highway Patrol officer last February when they shot their guns, a prosecutor told a jury Tuesday.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Susan Steinfeld said Ted Teyechea and Michael Herrera may not have wanted to kill CHP Officer Scott Wall on Feb. 9, but they did want to save their careers by getting away from him.

The Los Angeles Police Department officers are on trial for assault with a deadly weapon against a police officer, gross negligence in the discharge of a firearm and shooting into an occupied vehicle.

The two officers allegedly fired a total of 21 shots during a drunken spree on the Harbor and Artesia freeways.

The officers, both nine-year LAPD veterans, have been suspended without pay pending the outcome of the trial.

According to previous testimony, Teyechea and Herrera went to a Sunset Boulevard bar after they got off duty that morning. Teyechea said he drank “three or four beers” during the more than five hours he and his partner spent in the bar.

Teyechea said he was feeling frustrated, angry and depressed because he had just learned he would not be getting a pay raise for the second year in a row.