Oxnard Officer Killed by SWAT Team Leader

The leader of an Oxnard police SWAT team fatally shot 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 in western Ventura County on a suspected major drug ring dealing in cocaine and methamphetamine in the county.

Officials said the fatal shooting took place just seconds after the victim, Oxnard 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 in 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 Ventura resident--married and the father of two young daughters--was pronounced dead 25 minutes later in a hospital emergency room.

At an afternoon news conference, grim police officials said they had not yet interviewed Christian, who was temporarily suspended pending an investigation. They said they did not know what caused him to mistake his partner for a suspected drug dealer during the commotion in the assault on the condominium. The diversionary device was loud, smoky and bright, they said.

“This was a case of mistaken identity by the officer involved,” Oxnard Police Chief Harold Hurtt said.

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

Jensen’s father, Rex, of Salt Lake City, said the shooting represented his greatest 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 to do],” Rex Jensen said. “I didn’t want to see his wife a widow.”

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 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 complex where Jensen was shot. Five handguns and a rifle were seized countywide. No one else was injured.

Jensen, who was a Ventura County sheriff’s deputy before joining the Oxnard force 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 and a Little League baseball coach. He had spent 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 the involvement of two highly regarded officers, said Cmdr. John Crombach, who directed Wednesday’s raids in Oxnard. A former homicide investigator, Christian 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 the request of Hurtt, officials said. The Oxnard department is conducting an internal inquiry.

Jensen is the second Oxnard officer to be killed on duty since 1993. At least five other officers have died on the job since the department was formed in 1903.

Wednesday morning’s fatal raid was considered “high-risk” from the start, Hurtt said. “This was a very dangerous situation. I understand the type of business we’re in . . . but that doesn’t make it any less traumatic.”

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 assault up a staircase, followed closely by Christian, Crombach said. 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 took place.

The series of raids by the Ventura-Oxnard Narcotic Enforcement Team ended a two-year undercover operation against the ring’s activities in Oxnard, Camarillo, Ventura, Santa Paula and Port Hueneme.

Drug agents said the raid demonstrates that Ventura County has become one of the hottest spots in the United States for methamphetamine distribution. The raids also show that street gangs are linked with large-scale drug dealing.

The suspects arrested Wednesday were current and former Santa Paula gang members who had recruited younger street-level youths to sell methamphetamine and cocaine, said Lt. Carl Handy of the Ventura Police Department.

Officers and community members were stunned by the officer’s death.

“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.”

“It was well planned and well executed and had we all walked out of there in one piece, it would have been successful,” Crombach added.

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

Jensen’s death also was mourned by citizens who had worked with him in his off-duty activities.

“This is a terrible loss for the city because this is a police officer who didn’t view being a police officer as just a job,” said John Branthoover, 52, of Oxnard, who helped found the city’s Neighborhood Watch program six years ago and had worked with Jensen.

“He was a guy who was trying to make the city a safer and a more family-friendly place,” Branthoover said. “He was really involved and really cared about the community. He tried to make a difference.”

After working the late shift Friday night, Jensen hit the baseball diamond Saturday morning to help out during an all-day baseball camp for 60 Oxnard youngsters.

“He loved working with kids,” said Ralph Sanchez, program coordinator for the Police Activities League that sponsored the baseball clinic. “He felt this was a way for him as an officer to interface with kids in a different environment.”

Times correspondent Eric Wahlgren contributed to this story. Kelley is a Times staff writer and Blechman is a correspondent.

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How the Shooting Happened

An Oxnard police sergeant accidentally shot and killed a fellow officer early Wednesday morning during a raid at an empty condominium as part of a drug sweep of 16 homes and businesses. Here, according to Oxnard police, is a reconstruction of what happened:

1) At 6:05 a.m., 12 Oxnard police SWAT team members in camouflage gear enter a two-level condominium in the 2400 block of Manzanita Street near the Port Hueneme Navy base, expecting to find three methamphetamine dealers inside.

2) Officer James Jensen, 30, ascends a stairway to the right of the entryway. Behind him is his supervisor. Sgt. Daniel Christian, 43, armed with a 12-gauge shotgun. Other officers continue searching the downstairs area.

3) As he nears the top of the stairs, Jensen tosses a “flash-bang” device into the second-floor hallway. It ignites with a bright flash, a loud bang and smoke.

4) Within seconds, Christian opens fire; he says later he mistook Jensen amid the smoke for a suspect.

5) Jensen is hit by as many as three shotgun rounds. He is pronounced dead at 6:30 a.m., 25 minutes after the shooting, at a local hospital.