Man Arrested in Shooting of Anaheim Officer

Police arrested a suspect late Tuesday in the wounding of an Anaheim patrolman during a traffic stop.

Anaheim Police Sgt. Bill Jefferson said Juan Carlos Alcarez, 24, was arrested on an outstanding warrant for robbery and was being questioned by detectives.

“I just hope this brings a quick close to this case,” Jefferson said.

The suspect was apprehended in Corona about 8:15 p.m., Anaheim Police Sgt. Greg Palmer said.

The arrest capped two days of an intensive search by Anaheim officers who, with help from other departments, combed several areas of Orange and Riverside counties.

As a swarm of police officers staked out parts of Santa Ana on Tuesday, authorities had remained tight-lipped about the man they believe shot Officer Thomas “Kasey” Geary once in the face at 1:50 a.m. Monday.

Family members and friends continued their vigil by Geary’s bedside at UC Irvine Medical Center in Orange. Doctors were able to remove a ventilator that had helped the 39-year-old officer breathe.

Police sources said Geary was shot while acting on a tip that a suspect was selling drugs or illegal weapons. He followed a man driving a sport utility vehicle from an Anaheim restaurant and stopped the vehicle at the Ball Road onramp to the southbound Orange Freeway. After he called in the description and license number of the vehicle, police dispatchers did not hear from Geary again, Anaheim Police Sgt. Rick Martinez said.

Carlos Ortiz, a Long Beach park ranger who was driving on the freeway, saw Geary on the ground, bleeding from a bullet wound to the left cheek. Ortiz administered first aid and summoned officers on Geary’s radio.

Although his wound was not life-threatening, the bullet fractured his jaw and tore through his neck, with fragments coming within half an inch of his spinal cord.

A hospital spokeswoman said Geary was able to talk after doctors removed the breathing tube. However, investigators were unable to interview him, Martinez said.

Hospital sources said doctors had decided to leave the bullet fragments in Geary’s neck, fearing that an attempt to remove them would do more harm than good.

Geary, a Medal of Valor winner for rescuing a man from a burning building, has worked for the Anaheim department for 18 years. He is married to an Orange County sheriff’s deputy, who is expecting their second child, friends said Tuesday.