Man Arrested in Fatal Bar Shooting

A Tustin man talking on his cellular phone to a police dispatcher ignored her plea Thursday night and fatally shot another man who was fighting with a woman outside a bar, police said.

Steven Allan Steeps, 34, called police at 7:10 p.m. from outside the Pump Room Bar, in the 1500 block of West Chapman Avenue, said Lt. Timm Browne.

“He said that a male and female were involved in some sort of fight and he announced that he was going to shoot the male,” Browne said. “Our dispatchers told him that he was not trained to do that. We told him it was not necessary and to relax and be a good witness.”

As police were on their way, Steeps fired, Browne said.

“He took it into his own hands,” Browne said.

Police said the gunman, the victim and the woman had all been drinking inside the bar, but Steep did not know the other two. Browne said the man and woman had been arguing over which one was too drunk to drive, and the man had smashed a window of the car the woman was sitting in.

Russell Alan Graham, 39, of Whittier, was shot in the head by a round fired from a large-caliber handgun, Browne said.

Steeps was still holding a gun when police arrived, he said. He was arrested on suspicion of murder.

“We don’t encourage anyone to take this kind of action on their own,” Browne said.

“There’s always the potential that they could misjudge a situation. It would appear that the circumstances were not what Steeps perceived them to be. Alcohol impairs your judgment.”