Celebratory Gunfire Leads to 100 Arrests : Crime: New Year’s violence also includes the shooting death of an off-duty sheriff’s deputy and bullets striking a police helicopter, wounding a co-pilot.

Gunfire rang in the new year throughout Southern California as more than 100 revelers were arrested in Los Angeles County for allegedly shooting into the air and a police helicopter was forced to land in Riverside after high-powered bullets pierced the craft, wounding a co-pilot.

New Year’s violence also included two incidents involving Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies. In Victorville, an off-duty deputy was fatally wounded after an argument with a group of men outside his fiancee’s apartment. And in Altadena, a deputy critically wounded a man who had broken the shoulder of the officer’s partner with a fire extinguisher, according to authorities.

As always, police throughout the region were kept busy on New Year’s Eve responding to reports of guns being fired into the air. The Los Angeles Police Department’s Gunfire Reduction Task Force answered 650 calls connected to celebratory shooting. Police arrested 98 people on suspicion of illegally firing weapons, and confiscated 112 firearms.

At least one person was wounded in the city as a result of festive gunplay, according to Detective Steve Yadon, who did not know the severity of the injuries.

In areas patrolled by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, deputies answered 325 calls related to random shooting, arrested 19 shooters and confiscated 21 firearms. Illegal gunfire wounded three people and caused seven incidents of property damage, deputies said.

In Riverside, police helicopter co-pilot John Fehrs was hit in the right foot shortly before 11 p.m. by a bullet from a military rifle, according to officials. Three rounds were fired into the craft, rupturing the gas tank and ripping into the copter’s underbody, police said.

Sgt. Dan Padelford said he believes the helicopter was specifically targeted because of the number of times it was hit.

Pilot Russ Shubert landed the craft about half a mile from the Casa Blanca neighborhood, where the shots were fired. Fehrs was reported in good condition.

The helicopter had been responding to a resident’s report of being hit by a stray bullet during gunfire that is traditionally heavy New Year’s Eve in Casa Blanca, according to Padelford.

“It was like you were in a firefight,” he said of the area flown through by the helicopter.

Just before 2 a.m. Sunday, gunfire turned a domestic quarrel into tragedy in Victorville after off-duty Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Deputy Tommy Meinke, 26, was shot to death. A 17-year-old boy has been arrested in the shooting.

Meinke, of Carson, was killed allegedly after being confronted by a group of males who had heard him arguing loudly with his fiancee in her apartment.

When Meinke walked out of the residence, he was reportedly confronted by the group, which included the 17-year-old suspect. A shoving match occurred and the unarmed officer was fatally wounded by the teen-ager, according to San Bernardino County sheriff’s deputies, who said a shotgun is the suspected weapon.

The teen-ager was held at the county juvenile hall.

The new year also began tragically in Compton, where the slain body of Mamie Conner, 51, was discovered by her 4-year-old granddaughter.

The child, who was spending the night with Conner, called relatives when she found her grandmother dead with her throat slashed, according to police.

There were no suspects Sunday.

Shortly afterward, in Altadena, a sheriff’s deputy shot and critically wounded a burglary suspect.

The deputy fired three rounds after the suspect allegedly broke the shoulder of the officer’s partner by hurling a fire extinguisher at him about 2:30 a.m. at an apartment complex in the 1900 block of East Washington Boulevard, authorities said.

The 26-year-old suspect, Mark Allen Maynard of Pomona, was wounded in the chest and arm and was in critical condition at St. Luke Medical Center in Pasadena, where he underwent surgery, according to deputies. The names of the deputies involved were withheld.

Hinojos said deputies were answering a burglary call when they saw Maynard near the apartment complex. They ordered him to come over to them but he ran to the rear of the building, Hinojos said.

One of the deputies who pursued Maynard fell and the second deputy saw Maynard walking toward his colleague with the extinguisher. As Maynard threw the fire extinguisher at the deputy who fell, the other deputy fired three times at Maynard, hitting him twice, McLaughlin said.

Investigators said it appeared that Maynard tried to break into several apartments before sheriff’s deputies arrived, entering at least two of them. It was unknown if anything was stolen.

It was the second time in two weeks that deputies from the Crescenta Valley sheriff’s station had shot someone who attacked them with a weapon that was not a firearm. On Dec. 18, deputies fatally wounded a mentally disturbed man after he allegedly lunged at them repeatedly with a jagged crutch.