Santa Ana Man Slain by Police Officer

A 20-year-old man who authorities say drew a gun on an officer during a traffic stop was shot and killed by a Santa Ana policeman, officials said Monday.

Luis Alberto Zayas of Santa Ana was taken to Western Medical Center-Santa Ana, where he died shortly after the 10:30 p.m. shooting Sunday, police said.

The officer, whom police declined to name, was not injured and was placed on routine administrative leave.

Police said the officer spotted a two-tone Ford Bronco in the 2500 block of Bristol Avenue that resembled a car that was involved in a Nov. 28 incident in which shots were fired at an Orange County sheriff’s deputy.

When the officer tried to stop the car Sunday night, the driver, identified as Zayas, pulled into a fast-food restaurant parking lot, where he “immediately got out of the car holding a loaded semiautomatic handgun,” said Santa Ana Police Sgt. Baltazar De La Riva.

The officer fired at Zayas, hitting him several times in the chest, police said. A passenger in the car, who was not identified, was questioned and released.

De La Riva said the officer wanted to question Zayas because the car’s description matched that of one involved in a November shooting incident in Santa Ana. In that incident, an off-duty sheriff’s deputy spotted the car, found it suspicious and followed the vehicle to get a license plate number when someone in the car fired one round at him before fleeing, police said. The gunshot missed, and the deputy was not injured.

Zayas was not a suspect in the Nov. 28 shooting, De La Riva said. He was on probation and had outstanding warrants for drugs and weapons violations.

The district attorney’s office is investigating the shooting, which is standard procedure.