Tight-Knit Department Closes Ranks

As nervous police officers and their chief huddled outside an emergency room Tuesday after one of their own was shot, they could not shake memories of the last tragedy to sweep the close-knit department two years ago this month.

It was on Halloween night in 1994 that a drunk driver slammed into La Habra Officer Michael Anthony Osornio, making the 26-year-old rookie the department’s only cop to be killed on duty in the city’s 69-year history.

Tuesday morning’s shooting of Officer David Smith shook the small, family-oriented department to its core.

“It’s horrible,” Police Chief Steven H. Staveley said. “The last time we were here, almost two years ago, we didn’t have such a good result.”

An emotional Staveley fought back tears as he struggled to explain the feelings that washed over him when he first got word of an “officer down.”

“It’s absolutely the worst part of my job,” he said. “The paramedics called me and let me know that it was as benign as you could hope for, but still, it’s terrible, terrible.”

The chief rushed to Smith’s side and spoke briefly with the six-year department veteran, shot once by a high-powered rifle. “He said it hurts. He’s scared and he wants his wife here.”

The bullet entered Smith’s lower left shoulder and ended up in his neck, but Staveley said doctors at UCI Medical Center in Orange told him that tests revealed only “fragments of material” and surgery would not be necessary.

“It looks like he was very, very lucky,” Staveley said. “There are no indications of serious damage. He’s going to be just fine.”

In 1982, a La Habra officer was wounded in a car chase of a bank robber, but a close-range shooting of an officer is unprecedented in the small department, said Capt. Terry Rammell, a 24-year La Habra veteran.

It fell on Rammell to make the phone call to Smith’s wife and deliver the news. He reached her at work in Cerritos, then promptly left the station to drive her to the hospital.

“It’s one of those areas of the job that if it happens one time, it’s one too many,” Rammell said as he stood outside the emergency room entrance.

The couple has a 1 1/2-year-old daughter, police said.

Another officer drove to the home of Smith’s parents--ironically only 10 houses from the Lorella Street scene of the shooting--and accompanied them to the hospital. Rammell briefed them on their son’s condition in hushed tones and then escorted them in through the emergency room’s sliding doors.

“Well, let’s go on up and see how he’s doing,” Smith’s mother said.

The shooting set in motion a tight network of support.

Department officials got on the telephone Tuesday morning and called every one of the more than 100 Police Department personnel to notify them of Smith’s shooting, prompting a constant procession of visitors.

More than a dozen officers in and out of uniform trickled in through the emergency room. Officers’ wives also heeded the call to lend support to Smith’s family, Rammell said.

“La Habra is a very family-oriented department,” Rammell said. “Our officers, when they come, stay for many years. We lose very few to other departments. It’s a fine department and a fine city to work for.”

Also contributing to this report was Times staff writer Michael G. Wagner.