Deputies Tell of Trying to Save Officer

As Deputy Peter J. Aguirre Jr. struggled to take his final breaths, his fellow officers gathered around him and tried to save their fallen comrade, according to court testimony Friday.

Testifying in the murder trial of Michael Raymond Johnson, Sheriff’s Deputy David Sparks told the jury that he and another officer rolled the mortally wounded Aguirre onto his side so Aguirre could breathe easier.

Sparks choked up as he described how he had trouble recognizing his friend.

“I couldn’t see his face,” he said. “There was a large amount of blood.”

Aguirre’s parents, who were sitting in the courtroom with his widow, wept silently.

Johnson, who sat without expression through much of the testimony, faces charges that he shot Aguirre to death after the 26-year-old rookie deputy responded to a domestic disturbance call in July 1996 at a Meiners Oaks residence. He also is charged with attempted murder, kidnapping and rape.

Johnson, a five-time felon, killed Aguirre, prosecutors say, because he did not want to go back to prison for allegedly abducting and raping his estranged wife.

Defense attorneys do not deny that Johnson, a Vietnam veteran, killed Aguirre, but they argue Johnson had a psychological breakdown that day and that the shooting was not premeditated. The attorneys also argue Johnson did not abduct his wife or rape her but that their liaison was consensual.

It was the woman’s daughter who called deputies to the home, saying she was worried that Johnson, who had two guns, posed a threat to her mother.

Aguirre was one of four deputies who responded to the call on Encinal Avenue.

Prosecutors say that while Aguirre walked up to the door, another deputy followed him and two other deputies went to the back of the house.

In earlier testimony, jurors were told that as Aguirre stepped inside the house he called out, “Hey, Mike.”

But before Aguirre could pull out his weapon, Johnson allegedly burst from a shower naked but with two semiautomatic pistols--a .32-caliber Beretta and a chrome-plated .45-caliber Colt--and fired three shots at the deputy, hitting him twice. Then Johnson walked over to the fallen officer and fired a fourth time into Aguirre’s head, prosecutors say.

After the shooting, Johnson ran out the front door and started firing at another deputy, James Fryhoff, according to prosecutors. Johnson was arrested after he was wounded in the chest by Fryhoff.

Sparks was the third deputy to testify during two days about the shootout with Johnson.

On Thursday, Fryhoff and Deputy Steve Sagely testified that Aguirre never had a chance to draw his weapon before Johnson began firing.

Sparks said Friday that the entire incident took fewer than five minutes before Johnson wound up handcuffed on the ground outside and Aguirre was on the floor inside the house mortally wounded. Aguirre’s gun was still snapped into its holster, Sparks testified.

Sparks said he and the other deputies tried to help Aguirre breathe by removing his bulletproof vest and rolling him on his side. Aguirre, the father of a young daughter, struggled to catch his breath, Sparks said.

“His breaths were coming farther and farther apart,” Sparks said.

Finally, as paramedics attempted to perform first aid on Aguirre, Sparks and the other deputies were moved outside, he said.

Along with the testimony from Sparks, jurors heard from evidence technician Joy Self, who testified that she found a bullet slug embedded in the floor under where Aguirre had fallen after he was shot.

That evidence bolsters the prosecution’s claim that after Aguirre had been shot and was lying on the ground, Johnson walked up to him and shot him in the head from close range.

The trial will resume Monday with testimony from experts on blood spatters and firearms.