Not Involved in Officer’s Attack, Man Says

One of two men suspected of shooting an Orange County sheriff’s sergeant in the face said in a jailhouse interview Monday that police are holding the wrong people. Miguel Valdivinos, 21, said he and his brother, a 10th-grader, were walking in a relative’s neighborhood in Riverside when the shooting occurred Saturday at a Lake Forest shopping center.

“How can we be at two places at the same time?” asked Valdivinos, who is being held at Santa Ana Jail. “I’m not like that. I’m not a bad person.” His brother, who is 16, also was arrested after going to a Riverside hospital with a gunshot wound.

Valdivinos said he and his brother were walking to a relative’s home in Riverside when about four men fired at them from a moving car. He said he dragged his brother into a car parked nearby and drove him to the hospital.

Police dispute that account, saying the brothers are reputed to be gang members--which Valdivinos denied--and have extensive criminal records.

“It’s difficult to respond to such nonsense,” sheriff’s spokesman Jim Amormino said of Valdivinos’ account.

Investigators said the brothers may have been at the shopping center to rob one of the businesses. Two-way radios were found in the stolen car, police said.

The injured officer, Sgt. Kurt Vasentine, 45, was in good condition Monday at Mission Hospital Regional Medical Center in Mission Viejo after surgery to remove a .380-caliber bullet from his collarbone, officials said.

Investigators said Vasentine, a 23-year veteran, was shot in the face at point-blank range about 8 a.m. Saturday while checking out a suspicious car in an alley at Lake Forest Market Place. When the sergeant approached, a man in the vehicle tried to run, but the officer wrestled him to the ground. The man then pulled a gun from his pocket and fired at the officer, who returned fire, hitting the man in the leg, Amormino said.

The wounded man waved to the driver of a second car, a black Toyota Avalon, and the two fled in it, officials said.