Man Wounds Wife, Then Himself : Violence: Gunman had threatened her earlier and was taken into custody. But he was released after psychiatric exam.

A 34-year-old man, who had been released by police on Monday after a psychiatric assessment, shot his estranged wife in the head Wednesday and then turned the gun on himself, police said.

Maria Chavez, 29, was in critical condition at UC Irvine Medical Center in Orange after the 9:37 a.m. shooting at her apartment, Sgt. Danny Becerra said.

Jose Chavez of Anaheim was coherent when he was arrested despite a head wound, police said. He was in serious condition at St. Jude Hospital in Fullerton.

On Monday, police said, they received two separate reports that Jose Chavez was talking about killing his wife and her boyfriend. Officers took him to the police station for a psychiatric evaluation by the Charter Mobile Assessment Team, one of several private providers used by the Fullerton Police Department for such evaluations.

Sandra Sellani, spokeswoman for the team’s parent organization, Mission Viejo-based Charter Behavioral Health System of Southern California, said that she could not discuss specifics of the case, but that typically, a registered nurse with a psychiatric background goes to a police station or emergency room within half an hour of an evaluation request.

The decision on whether to hospitalize individuals, Sellani said, depends upon whether there is “imminent danger that they will act on either suicidal or homicidal impulses at the time of the assessment.”

Charter determined that Chavez did not meet those criteria, police said. Charter referred him to outpatient counseling and made an appointment for him for later Monday. Police do not know if he kept the appointment.

Deciding whether to hospitalize someone “is, in a sense, a judgment call by the person making the assessment,” Sellani said. “At the same time, the assessment is based on criteria established by the county. . . . The county is very specific in their guidelines, and limit our actions in what we can and cannot do. We’re as precise as the law allows us to be. We do everything we can within the powers given us by the county.”

Police Sgt. Glenn Deveny said the evaluation process is “the best resource we have. They help more than they hinder. . . . There’s no hole in the system.”

Police said that Chavez had gone to his estranged wife’s apartment Monday morning to take one of his daughters to Acacia Elementary School. At the school, he had made threats against his wife and her boyfriend.

“He was talking weird,” Deveny said, “making all kinds of threats. He said he was separated and despondent, that he felt it was his duty to kill his wife and kill her boyfriend.”

Chavez was taken to a DARE police officer at the school, who called for assistance. Chavez was not armed, police said, but he was taken to the station for evaluation.

Later Monday, a man who identified himself as Maria Chavez’s boyfriend called police to report threats by Chavez against him. Police took a report over the phone, Deveny said.

When Chavez returned to his wife’s apartment with a semi-automatic handgun, their four children and her mother were present, police said. One of the children called 911 for help.

Police found Jose Chavez outside the apartment when they arrived. Becerra said Chavez told police that he had shot his wife. A handgun was found inside the apartment, Becerra said.

Maria and Jose Chavez have reportedly been married six to seven years and have been separated for six months.

Times photographer Kari Rene Hall contributed to this story.