Man With Gun Shot by Police

A shotgun-toting man, who ran away from an ATM after a La Habra police officer approached him Sunday, was shot dead by the officer after a chase through a neighborhood, police said.

Family members identified the dead man as Michael Duarte, 22, of Riverside, and said he had been scheduled to attend his 1-year-old daughter’s birthday party in Chino later in the day.

Police would not confirm the family’s identification of the man. They said the officer approached the man at about 11:45 a.m. in a rear parking lot of a Bank of America. Police did not say why the officer initially walked up to the man, but said he then noticed that he was holding a shotgun. “The suspect ran, and our officer ran after him,” Lt. Steven Costanzo said.

As the man ran into a nearby residential area, the officer called for backup, police said. The suspect was fatally shot by the officer in the middle of the street in the 300 block of East 2nd Street, police said. The officer, who was not identified, was being questioned by police detectives late Sunday afternoon.

“We do know the shooting occurred in the street, but we don’t know all the details yet,” Costanzo said.

During the chase, one police car slammed into a telephone pole. As the young man’s body lay covered up on the street, a large gun nearby, about 100 people gathered, comparing accounts of the killing.

Marcia Garcia, a neighbor who lives across the street from the shooting, said she heard four or five gunshots, and looked out her living room window to see Duarte running from a policeman. As she led her children out of the room, she heard a few more shots. When she returned, she saw “four policemen surround him, and then one bent down and touched his neck to see if he was alive.”

Garcia said she had seen police questioning Duarte, whom she knew by name, two months earlier.

Relatives were called to the scene by neighbors and other relatives. Tina Duarte, 30, Michael’s sister, informed their mother by cell phone while she looked at her brother’s covered body.

Arty Duarte, 31, said his brother had been arrested for gang-related activities before he moved to Riverside six years ago. He declined to provide specifics.

Yolanda and Edward Duarte, Michael’s aunt and uncle, said he had told them as recently as last week that he feared police were after him.

Duarte’s body lay on the street for several hours, while neighbors and police officers milled about, uneasily eyeing one another. About three hours after the shooting, his wife, Nicole, arrived and shouted angrily at officers: “You pigs killed him.”

Police did not respond.