Oxnard Police Officer Fatally Shoots Partner

The leader of an Oxnard police SWAT team shot to death a fellow officer and close friend during a drug raid early Wednesday, a tragedy officials described as “a case of mistaken identity.”

The fatal shotgun blasts came during one of 16 coordinated police assaults throughout western Ventura County on a major drug ring dealing in cocaine and methamphetamine.

Officials said the shooting took place just seconds after the victim, Officer James Rex Jensen Jr., had hurled a smoky, “flash-bang” diversionary grenade into a second-story hallway of an empty condominium where authorities had expected to find three armed suspects.

Jensen, 30, promoted to the Special Weapons and Tactics unit last July, was shot as many as three times in the shoulder and chest above his protective vest by veteran Sgt. Daniel Christian, 43, officials said. The sergeant had followed Jensen up the staircase after finding no one on the ground floor.

The Ventura resident--married and the father of two young girls--was pronounced dead 25 minutes later in a hospital emergency room.

Authorities described the shooting as a tragic accident and, with a police officer fatally shooting a colleague, unprecedented in recent Ventura County history.

At an afternoon news conference, grim Police Department officials said they had not yet interviewed Christian, who was suspended with pay pending an investigation. They said they did not know what caused him to mistake his partner for a suspected drug dealer.

Police said the throwing of the diversionary device--which is loud, smoky and bright--was planned. But they could not yet say if it somehow triggered the shooting.

“This was mistaken identity by the officer involved,” Oxnard Police Chief Harold Hurtt said. “We do not have much of a margin for error. . . . I understand the type of business we’re in . . . but that doesn’t make it any less traumatic.”

Officials described Christian as “in shock, numb.” Reached Wednesday morning, Christian was too upset to talk.

Jensen’s father, Rex Jensen of Salt Lake City, said the shooting represented his worst fear for his only son.

“I tried to dissuade him from being a police officer, but he said that was the kind of work he [wanted],” the slain officer’s father said. “I didn’t want to see his wife a widow.”

Jensen and his wife of six years, Jennifer, had two girls, Katie, 3, and Lindsay, 5.

A neighbor, Mike Abbruscato, 33, said he was shocked by the news of Jensen’s death, since they had just chatted on Tuesday.

“He was a real nice guy,” Abbruscato said. “I know he was really excited that he had just made the SWAT team not too long ago. I guess it was more pay and more exciting.”

The raid on the condo in a quiet, residential neighborhood near the Port Hueneme Navy base was part of a sweep of 16 dwellings and businesses by about 100 officers in five cities that concluded a two-year investigation.

All 14 suspects named in police warrants were arrested, including three who had been living in the Manzanita Avenue condo complex where Jensen died. Five handguns and a rifle were seized in the countywide action. There were no other injuries.

“It was well-planned and well-executed, and had we all walked out of there in one piece, it would have been successful,” said Oxnard Police Cmdr. John Crombach, who directed Wednesday’s raids in his city.

Jensen, a Ventura County sheriff’s deputy before joining the Oxnard police in 1992, was described by Hurtt as an ambitious officer who had not only earned a promotion last year, but was a leader in police union activities as well as a Little League baseball coach. He spent last Saturday helping to run a baseball camp for children.

“He was one of our best,” Hurtt said.

A particularly troubling aspect of the shooting was that it involved two highly regarded officers, said Crombach.

Christian, a former homicide investigator, oversees the department’s Street Crimes Unit, whose seven members investigate youth gangs. “Dan is highly trained, an excellent tactician,” Crombach said. “He’s a great supervisor. This is what makes this really tough. We have some of our finest people involved.”

The Ventura County district attorney’s office began an investigation of Jensen’s death at Hurtt’s request, officials said. The Oxnard Police Department is conducting an internal inquiry as well.

Jensen’s death marks the third time in 2 1/2 years that Ventura County has been rocked by the killing of an officer.

Oxnard Patrolman James O’Brien was shot while pursuing a gunman who killed three people at an Oxnard unemployment office in December 1993. Simi Valley Officer Michael Clark was fatally wounded last August while approaching the home of an unemployed teacher who was disturbing the peace.

Wednesday morning’s raid was considered high-risk from the start, Hurtt said. “This was a very dangerous situation.”

The assault began at 6:05 a.m., when 12 SWAT officers wearing green camouflage fatigues and heavy protective armor forced open the two-bedroom condominium. They quickly fanned across the bottom floor, but found no one.

Jensen led the charge up a staircase, followed closely by Christian, said Crombach. From the staircase, Jensen threw the “flash-bang” device to divert any suspects. Then the officers rushed from the stairs into a hallway, where the shooting occurred.

The series of raids by the Ventura-Oxnard Narcotic Enforcement Team targeted a ring with operations in Oxnard, Camarillo, Ventura, Santa Paula and Port Hueneme.

Drug agents said Wednesday that the raid demonstrated that Ventura County has become one of the hottest spots in the United States for methamphetamine distribution. The operation also showed that for the first time in the county’s history, street gangs have been linked with large-scale drug dealing.

Officers and community members had somber reactions to the tragedy.

“It is probably the worst of all scenarios,” said Sgt. Curt Rothschiller of the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department. “Not only does the victim’s family suffer, the other police officer has to be experiencing something very traumatic.”

“When a tragedy occurs,” said Oxnard Mayor Manuel Lopez, “it remind us of the great debt we all have to these officers.”

There are few statistics on officers shooting other officers, said Bill Geller, author of a book about police shootings entitled “Deadly Force--What We Know.” Only a handful of such cases have taken place in Southern California over the last several years.

On Feb. 11, 1993, Los Angeles Police Det. Mike Vaughn was shot in the shoulder by Det. Reuben Holguin while serving an arrest warrant. On Christmas Day that year, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Deputy Darryn Leroy Robins was shot and killed by his partner, Brian P. Scanlan, during an impromptu training exercise.

Last Dec. 18, Simi Valley Officer John Hughes shot a man who was wielding a knife and the bullet passed through the man’s body and into the thigh of fellow Officer Dave Raduziner.

Kelley is a Times staff writer. Wahlgren and Blechman are correspondents. Staff writer Mack Reed also contributed to this story.

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