4 Officers Are Shot, 2 in Lake View Terrace

In the second police shooting in less than a month, two Los Angeles police officers were injured Thursday morning when a man believed to be mentally ill fired an assault weapon at the two partners who had been called to quell a domestic disturbance, authorities said.

Hours later, an off-duty sheriff’s deputy was shot and critically wounded, apparently when he walked into a robbery at a flower shop in La Mirada. Later that night, another officer and his 15-year-old son were reported shot at a home in Pico Rivera, bringing the day’s toll to four peace officers wounded.

In the first shooting, at a Lake View Terrace residence, LAPD Officer Don Boon, 32, was struck in the hip, and his partner, Manuel Solis, 24, was grazed across the face by fragments, police said. After Boon was shot by the gunman, who apparently was standing beside the house, Solis dragged his partner to safety behind a car.

At least three other officers returned fire during the rescue, said LAPD Lt. Anthony Alba.

Officers sent out a radio call for help, drawing dozens of patrol cars and the SWAT team. After about an hour, as officers surrounded the home, Reynaldo Rivera surrendered and was taken into custody unhurt. He had been hiding in his Kathyann Street house, which was pocked with bullet holes from the brief shootout, authorities said.

One witness, neighbor Sylvia Franco, said Rivera told arresting officers, “I didn’t shoot, I didn’t shoot.”

LAPD officers recovered an assault rifle, reportedly an AR-15, they suspect was used in the shooting.

Boon and Solis were responding to a 911 call from Rivera’s wife, who said her husband was mentally ill and had a gun, police said. The two officers knocked on the door at about 10:30 a.m., and when no one answered began returning to the street when Rivera suddenly opened fire, Alba said.

Boon was hit almost immediately, Alba said.

As the officers returned fire, Rivera retreated into the house, Alba said.

Both Solis and Boon were taken to Providence Holy Cross Medical Center in Mission Hills.

One police source said officers from the Foothill Division responded last week to a complaint about a mentally ill person at Rivera’s house. The source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said officers seized a .45-caliber handgun there.

LAPD Chief Bernard Parks said Rivera appears to have “had some contact in the past with county health,” referring to the man’s mental health history. Rivera had recently been threatening to kill his wife and children, Alba said.

Echoing a complaint from officers at the North Hollywood shootout last year, Alba said the officers Thursday were outgunned. Two gunmen in that case used high-powered weaponry to hold dozens of officers at bay during an attempted Bank of America robbery.

“A semiautomatic weapon is far superior to [a police-issue handgun],” he said. “The officers would be immediately at a disadvantage when responding to a call like this.” Nonetheless, officers fired back, which may have distracted their attacker long enough to allow the two wounded officers to scramble for cover, he said.

The move was “brave, if not lifesaving,” Alba said.

Dr. Charles Deng, the emergency room physician who treated the injured officers, said Solis was apparently hit by fragments that ricocheted during the shootout. He suffered small puncture wounds to his nose and right cheek, and was treated and released from the hospital Thursday afternoon. Police say he was struck by bits of cinder block.

Boon, who has worked for the LAPD for 3 1/2 years, was shot in the left hip and was expected to remain in the hospital overnight. He will undergo a CT scan, as well as a possible surgery to check for internal injuries.

“Officer Boon was in a lot of pain, but he’s received medication for the pain,” Deng said, adding that Boon was conscious and lucid.

On his way out of the hospital, Donovan Lyons, Boon’s former partner in the Foothill Division, said Boon was acting like his usual self, despite his injury.

“He’s feeling fine. Don is being Don, he’s inside there joking,” Lyons said. “He’s in good spirits, he’s always been that way. You can’t keep the guy down.”

Lyons said the former U.S. Marine Corps officer is “well liked, very aggressive. . . . He’s got a will to survive, he’s a fighter.”

Boon is so tough, one colleague said, that after being shot he was able to give directions to the officer driving him to the hospital.

Jose Hernandez, 30, who is related to Solis by marriage, said Solis was in good spirits. “He’s doing fine. He’s doing great, as a matter of fact,” Hernandez said.

Solis, who was born in Mexico, is unmarried and has no children. He has been with the LAPD for 2 1/2 years.

“He loves his job,” Hernandez said. “He was aware of the risks.”

Thursday’s shooting came a little more than two weeks after LAPD Officer Steve Gajda was slain by an alleged gang member while trying to break up a raucous New Year’s Eve party in Boyle Heights.

In the La Mirada shooting Thursday, Deputy Carlos Ponce, 43, interrupted “some sort of crime in progress, perhaps a robbery,” at a flower shop, a sheriff’s spokeswoman said. “He tried to stop it and got shot.” The bullet lodged in his clavicle, and he was in critical but stable condition late Thursday at UC Irvine Medical Center, sheriff’s officials said.

Dennis Zine, vice president of the Los Angeles Police Protective League, said he thinks the risk of being a cop is on the rise.

“They say that crime is decreasing, but there’s a growing lack of respect for police officers out there,” Zine said. “It’s a frightening job at times.”

LAPD Cmdr. Tim McBride said investigators were examining all previous police calls to the Lake View Terrace address where the officers were shot.

“You have to look at whether this is something that could have been prevented,” he said.

Times staff writers Roberto Manzano and David Colker contributed to this story.