Hostage-Taker Killed by Authorities Identified

The man shot and killed by SWAT team members after a four-hour hostage situation late Wednesday was identified Thursday as Javier Moreno, 28, of Santa Ana, whom police said was wanted on a weapons charge and had been found with an assault rifle a week ago.

Moreno was shot after threatening to kill himself and his 17-year-old girlfriend in a barricaded apartment.

Last week, an officer spotted Moreno on the street and tried to stop him, said Police Sgt. Bob Clark, adding that in the ensuing chase Moreno dropped a loaded AR-15-type assault rifle.

The officer caught up with him and attempted to use Mace to subdue him, but Moreno escaped. In the struggle, the officer observed that Moreno was wearing a bulletproof vest, police said.

On Wednesday, undercover officers went, with the pretense of buying drugs, to the apartment in the 700 block of East Chestnut Street, where Moreno was believed to be hiding, Clark said.

After fruitlessly attempting to negotiate with Moreno, officers called in the SWAT team.

“He continued to threaten to kill the girl and himself,” Clark said. “He was rational one second and irrational the next.”

Throughout the siege, observed by about 200 people, Moreno showed what appeared to be his hand and an object wrapped in a towel, but Clark would not say whether any weapon had been recovered by police.

Moreno was shot three or four times in the face. His girlfriend, who has not been identified, was not seriously injured.

As with all officer-involved shootings, Clark said the matter would be investigated by the Orange County district attorney’s office.