Fugitive Shot to Death in La Habra Was ‘Scary Guy’

The fugitive who was mortally wounded after opening fire on police with an assault rifle was identified Wednesday as Anthony Miccio, described by investigators as a sadistic killer who is now also suspected in an unsolved Long Beach homicide.

Miccio, 24, was shot several times Tuesday morning after surprising a dozen police officers who were searching the home of his 15-year-old girlfriend for evidence in a La Habra Heights slaying, police said. As investigators interviewed the girl, Miccio sprang from a back room with an AK-47 blazing away, wounding one officer, police said.

On Wednesday, the injured officer, David Ross Smith, continued his recovery from a shoulder wound that left bullet fragments lodged in his neck. His colleagues, meanwhile, mulled over the chaotic shootout that could have been far more deadly.

“It could have been disastrous; all the ingredients were there,” said La Habra Police Sgt. Phil Stufflebean. “This was a very dangerous situation.”

Investigators also said on Wednesday that Miccio is now a suspect in the Aug. 22 slaying of Gregory Orloff, 35, a Long Beach resident whose body was found in that city at 6300 Gundry Ave., according to Long Beach Police Det. Bryan McMahon.

Evidence from the La Habra house may link Miccio to Orloff’s death, McMahon said. “We’re looking at a couple of items, but we can’t say anything for sure yet,” he said.

Orloff was killed in an “unusual” way, McMahon said. Police are keeping that information confidential until they have a break in the case. Other suspects are being sought, he said.

Orloff’s burned-out vehicle was found in Orange County. Police said that fit Miccio’s trait of using fire to torture victims or dispose of evidence. Miccio had allegedly tortured a Fullerton man with a blowtorch and once set fire to a bar after a robbery--even though bound victims were still inside.

“This was an extremely dangerous, violent individual,” Stufflebean said.

Police did not expect Miccio to be at the beige, ranch-style home in the 1600 block of Lorella Avenue in La Habra when they arrived at 8 a.m. Tuesday with a search warrant.

Los Angeles County sheriff’s investigators watched the house off and on for about a week and hoped to find trace evidence that it was the site where one of Miccio’s associates had been shot to death in September. Instead, they found an intense gun battle.

“The question that some people will ask is why we didn’t go in with a SWAT team if we had a dangerous suspect, but the officers were confident he wasn’t there,” Stufflebean said.

Police were so sure Miccio was not at the house that a second contingent of officers was stationed outside Rick’s Motel in Downey, a known haunt of Miccio’s. They hoped Miccio’s girlfriend would alert him about the search, sending him fleeing to the familiar hideout.

“That was the plan,” said Sgt. Steve Matson, a Fullerton detective staking out Rick’s Motel. “But that’s not what happened.”

Downey police had their SWAT team on alert, waiting to help Orange County officers if Miccio sprang the trap. “We were waiting in Downey to clean up at the point he showed up, but it was a totally uneventful surveillance,” Matson said. “Then we got the call he was in custody in La Habra. It was a complete surprise.”

After entering the Lorella Avenue home, officers knocked on the locked door of a back room and heard Miccio’s girlfriend say that she would come out after she put on some clothes, Stufflebean said. The 15-year-old emerged and was in the front room with her toddler when Miccio burst from the back room, shooting wildly.

“He fired with no regard to his girlfriend or the child,” Stufflebean said. “We heard he had said he would not be taken alive. And that’s the way he ended up.”

Matson said officers searching the La Habra house were expecting only to do “cleanup work” in a La Habra Heights homicide investigation, gathering trace evidence that might show the house was the scene of the crime.

The body of Manny M. Rivera, 27, of Fullerton was found Sept. 4 in a trash bin in the wooded Los Angeles County neighborhood of La Habra Heights, just north of the Orange County line. Evidence collected at the scene and an informant’s tip pointed to Miccio.

A tipster told police that Miccio allegedly killed the man after the two committed a robbery and hid out at the Lorella Avenue house. Miccio ordered his accomplice to watch for police, the tipster said; when Miccio later found the man sleeping, he allegedly shot him, according to police.

The investigation of Rivera’s death brought together several law enforcement agencies that were already independently searching for Miccio.

Anaheim police were seeking Miccio in connection with a residential robbery earlier this year, according to Anaheim Police Lt. Ted LaBahn.

Fullerton detectives had been on Miccio’s trail in connection with an attempted murder, robbery and kidnapping in early June. In that case, an unidentified Fullerton man was confronted by robbers who stabbed and kicked him and burned him with a small blowtorch. The victim was left for dead after the attackers tossed him into a Malibu canyon, but he later recovered, Matson said.

Miccio “liked to torture people; he liked to hurt them,” said Matson, a 20-year veteran of the Fullerton police force. “He’s was a lot more vicious than anyone else I’ve ever dealt with.”

Officer Smith’s survival was a matter of inches, police said--the bullet could easily have struck him in the head. The six-year veteran and father of a 1 1/2-year-old girl was listed in good condition Wednesday at UCI Medical Center in Orange and may be released today, Stufflebean said.

Los Angeles County sheriff’s investigators were hunting Miccio for his alleged involvement in a bar robbery in January 1995, according to Det. Jeff Grant. He said a fingerprint at the Wagon Wheel bar in Pico Rivera linked Miccio to the crime, committed by four masked men.

The robbers took over the bar for close to an hour, pistol-whipping and binding patrons before starting a fire, Grant said. The robbers made off with $3,000. One of the patrons managed to free himself and extinguish the blaze, he said.

Miccio “was a scary guy, and he was a slippery guy, all over the place,” Grant said. “There are two types of criminals: guys who do their job and guys who really enjoy their work. He was the second kind.”