Officer Shot, Suspect Killed at Anaheim Motel

A police officer was wounded in a motel shootout near Disneyland early Friday that left an assault suspect dead and sent tourists scrambling.

“I’m just not used to this” said a shaky Julie Bauman, 40, of Geneseo, Ill., who moved her family to another hotel Friday morning. “I’ve had one hour sleep.”

Anaheim police released few details about the shooting, except that it occurred at such close range that Officer Tim Garcia fell onto the suspect near a motel pool.

Garcia, 28, underwent three hours of surgery and was in good condition Friday with bullet wounds to his abdomen and thigh. The shooting marks the first time in 13 years that an Anaheim police officer has been wounded by gunfire.

“This is a rarity for our department and we hope it remains a rarity,” said Police Chief Randall Gaston, who rushed to the hospital shortly after the 1:15 a.m. shooting to check on the officer. “He’s fortunate that the wound wasn’t more serious, and we’re hoping that he doesn’t have complications to his recovery.”

The suspect, who was hit by multiple bullets, was dead on arrival at Garden Grove Hospital and Medical Center.

Police did not release the dead man’s name Friday, pending notification of his relatives, but described him as a parolee in his mid-20s with an extensive criminal record. The man was deported to Mexico in January, 1994, while on parole, and had been deported by the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service once before, Anaheim city spokesman Bret Colson said.

The shooting occurred after Garcia and other officers responded to a 911 call about a man who had pistol-whipped someone and fired a shot in the 2100 block of Mallul Drive, two blocks from Disneyland.

When Garcia and his partner arrived, they spotted a man matching the suspect’s description on South Harbor Boulevard near the Comfort Park Suites, Colson said.

Other officers were summoned to the motel to provide backup and form a perimeter to seal off the area, Colson said. A confrontation between Garcia and the suspect quickly escalated, he said.

Garcia followed the suspect through the parking lot and the two ended up on a walkway leading to the motel pool, in an area usually sealed off by a locked gate.

“As far as we know, the suspect refused to comply with what the officers told him to do, and that led to the confrontation,” Colson said.

Chief Gaston said it remains unclear how Garcia and the suspect got into the gated pool area, but when other officers arrived to help Garcia, the gate was open. Investigators have yet to interview Garcia because of his condition.

The Orange County district attorney’s office is investigating the incident, which is standard procedure in officer-involved shootings. Anaheim police are also investigating.

On Friday, some tourists from neighboring motels stopped by the taped-off crime scene near the theme park. A couple from San Francisco trained their video camera on investigators, eager to capture a sanitized peek of the violence.

But those who heard the shots outside their doors at the motel were rattled, and a few, like Bauman, made plans to check out.

“I’m just really worried about my children and myself,” Bauman said as she got ready to load her bags into a cab for a move to the nearby Hilton. “We came here to have a good time and this really put a damper on things. We live in a community where you could leave your keys in your car.”

Bauman is visiting Disneyland with her 5- and 16-year-old daughters and 21-year-old son, George Jolly from Seattle.

Jolly said he had just gone to his room early Friday after making a call from the parking lot pay phone when he heard two men yelling. One said, “You’re not going anywhere,” and then Jolly heard the shots.

“At first it sounded like a shot from a smaller gun,” he said. “Then I heard about 10 in a row from like a 9-mm or a .45, just continuous firing.”

Jolly said he heard another guest scream, and when he looked out the window she was running into her room.

Others said they didn’t fear for their safety but were shocked by the shooting.

“People aren’t allowed to carry guns in New Zealand,” said John Martin, 70, from that country’s northern town of Mitimita. “We’re not used to it. It’s been many years since a policeman’s been shot.”

Police said Garcia was wearing a bulletproof vest but the bullet to his abdomen struck him below the vest in the pelvis and ricocheted into his stomach.

He was taken to UCI Medical Center in Orange, rapidly losing blood from his thigh wound. The bullet to Garcia’s thigh passed through his leg. Doctors opted not to remove the bullet from his abdomen, but repaired the damage during surgery, Gaston said.

The chief, about half a dozen fellow officers and members of the department’s volunteer clergy corps went to the hospital early Friday to comfort Garcia’s family and await information on his condition.

“He has a very close family, and his parents and brothers and sisters were all there,” Gaston said. “They were very concerned about his condition, but they are also very supportive of the fact that he made a life decision to be a police officer. They know that in doing that job, there is a risk. We try our best to minimize that risk.”

Garcia came to the department a year ago from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.

“He’s been performing during this past year in a most acceptable manner,” Gaston said. “He did have previous experience and he had completed his training here.”

Garcia is the first Anaheim police officer to be shot on duty since 1982, when a veteran sergeant just months from retirement was shot in the back of his shoulder when he pulled over a speeding motorist.

Anaheim Councilman Lou Lopez, who also is a police officer and has been with the department for 26 years, called the shooting a “wake-up call” for officers.

“I was very upset to learn that a brother officer had been shot,” Lopez said. “It just goes to show that even routine calls can turn dangerous.”

Times staff writer Thao Hua contributed to this report.