Man Who Called Police Fatally Shot : Tragedy: 20-year-old tells officers of his robbery plan and asks them to shoot him. He is killed when he points pellet gun at police.

Tyler Lee Boyles called the police to say he was planning an armed robbery and wanted officers to come shoot him.

Less than half an hour later, the 20-year-old who loved comic books and roses got what he asked for: He was dead outside a doughnut shop, his body peppered with police bullets.

Garden Grove police said officers tried talking with Boyles, and opened fired when he pointed a gun at them in the darkness Tuesday night.

On Wednesday, 11 bullet holes marred the window of the doughnut shop and chalk circles marked more than 20 shell casings nearby.

Boyles’ girlfriend questioned whether police might have been able to help Boyles, who she said was struggling with schizophrenia, trying to hold down a job and spending his nights sleeping in a nearby schoolyard. Boyles kept a pellet gun handy for protection, she said.

“He was asking for help. When he said, ‘I want you guys to shoot me,’ they should have known right there he needed help,” said Honey Rose Seca, 17, her eyes filling with tears. “I don’t think they should have shot him so many times. If they shot him once, I know he would have stopped.”

Garden Grove police declined to say how many shots were fired and referred further inquiries to the Orange County district attorney’s office, which investigates all officer-involved shootings.

Christopher Evans, a supervising prosecutor with the homicide unit, said only that the investigation was underway Wednesday and could take up to two months.

Just hours before Boyles called police Tuesday night, he described a scene from the movie “Falling Down” to his girlfriend. In the scene, actor Michael Douglas provokes an officer to kill him by pointing a squirt gun at him and pretending it was real, Seca said.

“He said, ‘Wouldn’t that be a nice way to die?’ ” said Seca, who had been dating Boyles since October. “I told him everybody would remember him and I laughed it off. I thought he was just kidding.”

Seca said her response disturbed Boyles.

“He said, ‘That’s not what I expected you to say. I was expecting you to say, “Don’t do it.” ’ I just held him,” Seca said.

Just before 11 p.m., Seca said Boyles walked her to her house, less than a block from the doughnut shop, and kissed her good night.

“He told me he’d see me tomorrow,” she said. “I heard the gunshots as soon as I lay down to go to sleep.”

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Boyles’ call to police came at 11:02 p.m. from a pay phone outside a doughnut shop in the 13400 block of Brookhurst Street.

“He said he was going to commit a robbery and was armed with a handgun,” Garden Grove Lt. John Woods said. “He also said he wanted officers to shoot him.”

Woods said that when officers arrived, they talked to Boyles for several minutes. Boyles then raised his gun and pointed it toward them, prompting officers to fire on him, Woods said.

A clerk at a mini-mart next to the doughnut shop said Boyles appeared to be cooperating with police at first and seemed scared, particularly when officers brought dogs to the scene.

But when police told Boyles to take out his gun and drop it, Boyles pulled out a weapon, but hesitated and continued to hold on to it, clerk Mazon Hijazi said.

“They didn’t shoot immediately,” Hijazi said Wednesday. “He had the gun pointed up. Then I heard many shots, from different guns.”

He said that Boyles had been a regular at the market for the past month and often came in without cash, asking for candy and arranging to pay later. He always did, Hijazi said.

“He was very nice but he was very, very shy,” Hijazi said of Boyles, who came to the store about three times a week. “He always had a book with him.”

Just before the shooting, Boyles came into the store with 23 cents and asked Hijazi for a quarter to make a call. The clerk said he handed over the quarter and believed Boyles may have used it to call police from the pay phone.

“When he came in, he was not normal,” Hijazi said. “He was kind of upset and shaky.”

A short time later, Hijazi said, he saw police officers outside trying to negotiate with Boyles.

Seca and another family friend described Boyles as a gentle, charming young man who constantly brought them roses, loved comic books, and liked to escape into fantasy by wearing period costumes at the Renaissance Faire.

Seca said she and Boyles enjoyed hiking together, that he would hold her hand the entire way and help her over rocks. He showed her a rope swing at an old bunker in Huntington Beach, where they would go to play. Before he broke his leg about a year ago, he competed as an in-line skater, she said.

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Boyles finished Marina High School in Huntington Beach and had taken some pre-med classes at Golden West College, talking about one day becoming a doctor, his girlfriend said. He also was trying to enlist in the Army, but had not yet been processed, said Sharon Griffith, who has known Boyles for several years.

But Seca said Boyles had been struggling with mental illness and told her he heard voices. He told her he knew he was schizophrenic even before he was diagnosed by a psychiatrist last year. she said.

Boyles was married, divorced and the father of a 2-year-old son, court records show.

For the past few weeks, Boyles had been working at a telemarketing firm and kept a change of clothes under his desk, Seca said. On weekends, he would go to his mother’s house in Huntington Beach to get cleaned up and pick roses from her yard for his girlfriend.

Seca said that Boyles’ emotional problems made it difficult for him to keep a job. “He tried so hard, but he ended up sabotaging himself,” she said.

Griffith said she tried to get Boyles to seek treatment.

“I knew he was going down and anyone who was close to him was going down with him,” said Griffith, who is the grandmother of Seca’s 10-month-old baby from a previous relationship.

About a month ago, Griffith said, Boyles slashed through the muscle of his forearm with a knife and had to get stitches. He started acting carelessly, riding his bike in front of cars and doing other things to hurt himself, she said.

“I tried to talk to him about seeing a psychiatrist but he acted like he could handle it on his own,” Griffith said. “We were all throwing him life lines and saying, ‘Grab on,’ but he just wouldn’t take it.”

Seca knew her parents would not allow Boyles to move in with them, so she kept a close eye on him at the schoolyard, bringing him food. On Tuesday afternoon, Seca said she got off work at a nearby restaurant and went to the school looking for Boyles.

Seca said they curled up on his sleeping bag and read a new Batman comic book. They talked about when they would get married.

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“I gave him all my love and I gave him all my time, but he was just hurting so bad,” Seca said. “No matter what I gave him, it wasn’t enough. That wasn’t what he needed.”

After the sounds of gunfire later that night, Seca said she decided to go back to the schoolyard to bring Boyles a piece of chicken and some milk, but he was gone. She said she went to the doughnut shop and saw him lying on the ground, with his familiar pellet gun nearby and police officers all around.

“I wish they would have noticed the gun had tape on it,” Seca said. “The barrel was hollow. It didn’t even have a real barrel on it.”

Times staff writers Anna Cekola and Tina Nguyen contributed to this report.