Police Kill Gunman in Shootout

Police searching a home Tuesday morning for evidence to an unsolved slaying abruptly found themselves locked in a chaotic, fatal firefight after the suspect in the killing burst from a room firing an assault rifle, authorities said.

The 23-year-old gunman was killed and a La Habra patrol officer was wounded in the shootout, which ended with a dozen police officers searching in a heavy morning fog for the suspect, who had shot his way out of the home.

The suspect, who was not identified, was found 10 minutes later beneath a bush in the backyard, barely alive with four gunshot wounds. Police described him as a known gang member.

Investigators said the gunman died an hour later at UC Irvine Medical Center in Orange, the same hospital where Officer David Smith was listed in good condition after being shot in the left shoulder.

Police were withholding the suspect’s name until his relatives could be notified. La Habra Police Sgt. Phil Stufflebean described him as “an extremely violent fugitive” wanted by several Orange and Los Angeles County police agencies on felony charges and questioning in other cases--including the investigation that led to Tuesday’s search.

The 8 a.m. confrontation began as investigators executed a search warrant at the residence, hoping to find evidence in a slaying last month, according to Sgt. Noel Lanier of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.

Police have not disclosed the identity of that slaying victim, who was found Sept. 4 in a dumpster in La Habra Heights, Lanier said.

On Tuesday, Los Angeles sheriff’s deputies and La Habra police knocked on the door of the home on Lorella Avenue after a lead suggested that the house might provide evidence, police said. Stufflebean said officers did not expect to find the suspect at the house, although he also said the gunman was a resident at the home and the person named in the warrant.

“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 gunman fled the house, using his high-powered weapon to pin down officers. The two sides continued firing through the house’s walls as the suspect attempted his escape, Stufflebean said.

“He was armed with an assault rifle, which can deliver quite a punch, quite a few rounds,” Stufflebean said.

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 people were later questioned at the police station, he said.

The staccato bursts of gunfire woke up residents along the street of tidy, well-kept homes, which include the residence of the parents of the wounded officer.

Times staff writers Lee Romney and Tina Daunt contributed to this story.