Officer Shot, Gunman Dies in La Habra

Police searching a home Tuesday morning for evidence in an unsolved slaying abruptly found themselves locked in a chaotic, fatal gun battle after a man burst from a room with an assault rifle blazing away, authorities said.

The 23-year-old gunman blasted his way out of the house--wounding one officer--and seemed to disappear in the heavy morning fog outside. He was found 10 minutes later in the house’s backyard, bloody and dying from four gunshot wounds, police said.

Investigators said the gunman, whom they would not identify, died an hour later at UCI Medical Center in Orange, the same hospital where Officer David Smith, 35, was listed in good condition after being shot in the left shoulder. Smith, who is married and has a 1 1/2-year-old daughter, is expected to fully recover. He has been on the force for six years and has received several commendations for his work.

Police were withholding the gunman’s name until notification of his relatives, but La Habra Police Sgt. Phil Stufflebean described him as “an extremely violent fugitive” and a known gang member wanted by several Orange and Los Angeles counties law enforcement agencies for questioning in several felony cases.

The 8 a.m. confrontation began with a search of a home in the 1600 block of West Lorella Avenue, where investigators hoped to find evidence linked to the discovery last month of a slain man in neighboring La Habra Heights in Los Angeles County, according to Sgt. Noel Lanier of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.

Police have not disclosed the identity of the slaying victim, who was found Sept. 4 in a trash bin in the 200 block of Leucadia Road in a wooded residential neighborhood, Lanier said.

On Tuesday, Los Angeles sheriff’s deputies and La Habra police, following a lead in the case, went to the Lorella Avenue house with a search warrant, police said. Stufflebean said officers did not expect to find the gunman there.

“Essentially, officers were in the process of securing the house and talking to some of the house’s occupants when the suspect emerged from the rear of the house and began to shoot,” Stufflebean said. “There was a lot of confusion and turmoil. We had an officer shot, a suspect at large, and it was a tense, tense situation.”

The suspect fled the house, pinning down officers with a barrage of gunfire. He and officers both continued firing through the house’s walls as the gunman attempted his escape, Stufflebean said. One resident said she heard up to six shots, but Stufflebean said there could have been many more rounds fired in the furious exchange.

“[The gunman] was armed with an assault rifle, which can deliver quite a punch, quite a few rounds,” Stufflebean said. “This could have been a much more tragic situation with the suspect having the element of surprise and that kind of weapon.”

Stufflebean said that although the officers had been caught off-guard, they were “alert, prepared and effective” once the shooting began.

Three people--an adult male and two juveniles--were in the house and were apparently being interviewed by police in a front room when the gunman burst from hiding, Stufflebean said. The three were taken to the police station afterward and questioned, he said.

Two vehicles were parked in front of the home. One of them, a dark blue GMC truck, was listed as stolen in California Department of Motor Vehicles records. The other, a white Volvo, was registered to a resident of the home, according to state records.

The staccato bursts of gunfire woke up residents all along the street of well-kept, 1950s ranch-style houses. Many filed into the streets to peer through the fog at the beige-colored house on the northwest corner of Lorella Avenue and Deanna Street. Officers at the scene said the parents of the wounded officer are among the street’s longtime residents.

The site of the gun battle was a single-story house shaded by several large trees with a backyard swimming pool near the spot where the mortally wounded suspect was discovered. In recent years, the owner has rented it and does not live in the neighborhood, according to neighbors.

“I was sitting in my pajamas reading a magazine when I heard several loud pops, like big firecrackers, only louder,” said Mary Flynn, 74, who lives directly across the street from the house.

Flynn said she ran to her window and peeked out as one of the officers, with his gun drawn, crouched along the side of the house. In front of the house, she said she saw two more officers hastily grabbing guns from the trunk of an unmarked police car after the initial burst of gunfire.

“This was the most exciting thing that’s happened here since I’ve lived here,” said Flynn, a 38-year resident. She added that the house had been frequently rented to different tenants and more than one occupant appeared to be living there, but she had not met them.

At a preschool day-care center at the Lutheran Church of the Master on La Habra Boulevard--only 50 yards from the house--about two dozen children were playing outside when the gunfire rang out. Rosemary Rojas, 24, a teacher at A Child’s Place, said her colleagues quickly called police.

“They told us to take the kids inside and stay there,” Rojas said. “I was worried, but we had everything under control.”

Within moments of the shootout, the usually quiet street was crowded with police cars, fire trucks and paramedic vans, their emergency lights shining through the dense fog.

Officer Ron Hurst said the dead man was no stranger to police.

“We were very familiar with this suspect, and it just appears his past caught up to him,” he said.

Also contributing to this report were Times staff writers Tina Daunt, Tina Nguyen and Lee Romney.

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Shootout in La Habra

La Habra police officers and Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies exchanged gunfire with a man who burst in shooting as they served a search warrant in a La Habra home. The gunman later died of wounds and one policeman was hit but survived. Here’s what happened:

1. Police serving search warrant enter home through front door

2. Gunman enters room shooting; officers return fire

3. Hit four times, suspect staggers through back door and is later found in backyard.

4. La Habra Officer David Smith, wounded, given first aid and taken to hospital.

Source: Times reports