L.A. Officer Fatally Shot in Struggle With Suspect

A veteran Los Angeles police officer died Thursday, hours after he was shot while struggling with an armed murder suspect outside a boisterous New Year’s Eve party in Boyle Heights.

Officer Steve Gajda, who was part of a Los Angeles Police Department task force working to curb New Year’s Eve gunfire, was shot in the head shortly before midnight as he attempted to subdue a 17-year-old gang member who moments later was shot and killed by two other officers.

The 29-year-old Gajda, an LAPD officer for seven years, is survived by his wife, whose birthday was Thursday. They were married recently, and had two children from previous marriages.

Gajda’s alleged killer, Mario Machado, was being sought by police in connection with a murder that occurred last February. Machado--whose gang name was “Boxer”--apparently knew he was wanted by police and, according to authorities, had vowed to other gang members that he would never let officers take him into custody alive.

The shooting devastated Gajda’s colleagues, who remembered him as an energetic and friendly officer with a talent for drawing cartoons of his fellow officers at the Hollenbeck Division.

“It’s a very difficult time for all of us,” said Capt. Richard O. Gonzales, the commanding officer of Hollenbeck. “Our prayers are with him and his family.”

For the LAPD, the shooting was a tragic end to 1997 and a disheartening beginning for the New Year.

“This is something that we find is very distressing. . . . It’s unfortunate that we start the New Year off in this fashion, but it’s something that’s a reality of this job,” said Chief Bernard C. Parks, who cut short his Mexican vacation and flew back to Los Angeles, where he held an evening news conference on the incident.

“It’s another senseless use of violence against law enforcement,” he added.

Mayor Richard Riordan said Gajda’s “valor in service is a tribute not only to him and his family, but to all the men and women of the LAPD.”

According to police, Gajda and other officers were investigating a loud party near Savannah and New Jersey streets on Los Angeles’ Eastside, where they suspected gang activity.

When the officers pulled up to the house in black-and-white patrol cars, Machado tried to run away from them and into the rear door of a nearby house, police said.

As Gajda ran up to Machado from behind, the youth turned and shot at Gajda with a .25-caliber semiautomatic handgun, according to an LAPD press statement.

“Both the suspect and Officer Gajda fell to the ground, where the suspect continued to fire his gun at Officer Gajda,” striking him in the head, the statement said.

At that point, Gajda’s two partners--Officers Robert Chavira and Robert Farias--shot at Machado. Gajda also managed to fire one bullet from his service weapon, police said.

Machado was pronounced dead at the scene.

Gajda was taken to County-USC Medical Center, where he was declared brain dead, but remained on life support systems until Thursday afternoon. The officer’s wife and other family members were by his side when he was taken off life support at 2:43 p.m., police said.

Counting Gajda’s death, LAPD spokesman Lt. Anthony Alba said, 14 LAPD officers have been killed in the line of duty since 1990.

According to an LAPD wanted poster on Machado, police suspect he fatally shot a male juvenile after a dispute in February. That crime involved a .25-caliber semiautomatic handgun, the same sort of weapon he allegedly used Wednesday night, police said. No further details on the February slaying were immediately available.

In addition to working the Gunfire Suppression Detail on Wednesday night, Gajda and his partners were all members of the LAPD’s CRASH unit--a special gang enforcement team--and were all familiar with the gang problems in the Boyle Heights area.

Although they had not received any calls complaining about the party in the 2900 block of East New Jersey Street, the officers apparently thought it was too rowdy and planned to break it up.

Gonzales described the actions of the officers as “proactive” policing.

Deputy Chief Martin Pomeroy, who was acting chief in Parks’ absence, said “we may never know” if Gajda was trying to apprehend Machado because he recognized him as a wanted murder suspect or was only trying to detain a disorderly gang member.

At the Hollenbeck Division on Thursday afternoon, where a photo of an officer killed in 1969--the last officer from that station killed in the line of duty--hangs above the front desk, the mood was quiet and solemn. Grief counselors were available to officers to help them sort through the tragedy.

“Most of us have seen him in the last day or two and said ‘hi,’ ” said Officer Wayne Seymour. “And now he’s gone.”

Seymour said any time an officer is murdered, other officers question their own vulnerability and whether their job is worth the risk.

“My partner was talking about it,” he said. “In some ways, you make a lot of money. But you wonder if it’s worth it.”

At the 2:30 p.m. roll call, Sgt. Alex Salazar said the incoming officers, many of whom worked with Gajda, were quiet, “very emotional” and shed tears.

“He was one of those officers who wanted to make a difference. What we call a hard charger,” said Salazar. “He was a sought-after partner.”

Officer Armando Flores described Gajda as a streetwise officer who knew local gang members and whose courteous and humorous disposition brought him respect from other officers and the public.

Flores recounted how, after a fellow officer had been bitten by a dog, Gajda drew a humorous cartoon of an officer being chased by a puppy. In another cartoon, Gajda gibed an officer who tripped during a foot pursuit.

“It would get a big laugh,” said Flores. “He was always joking. We’re not supposed to have posters up. But sometimes the sergeant lets us keep them up if morale is low.”

Meanwhile Thursday, behind the white stucco house where the shooting occurred, Machado’s friends consoled one another and lit candles near the spot where he fell.

A witness who declined to give her name said she saw Machado come running around the corner of the house with the police in pursuit. She said she did not remember what happened next, but that the police shot Machado, then handcuffed him and left him in the yard.

Machado’s mother, Maria Teresa Rodriguez, described him as a loving son, but said she had lost touch with him as he spent more time on his own. He left home 10 months ago, she said, to move in with a girlfriend, and had dropped out of school. She had not seen him for at least three weeks.

“I don’t know where he lives,” she sobbed.

She wailed as Machado’s friends described how he died, and said afterward, “I don’t know why the police came.”

Gil Espinoza, 25, said his family used to baby-sit Machado, and that he had recently tried to nudge him away from the gang life by finding work for him as an extra in movies.

“I felt if I could keep opening his eyes, he probably would’ve been interested in doing something,” Espinoza said. “If I knew he wanted to come in [the gang], I would’ve objected. I know the life already.”