Police Misidentify Fullerton Man as Suspect in Standoff

Talk about adding insult to injury.

A man who police say was set up by his roommates to take the fall for the accidental firing of a gun inside his Fullerton home and holding a SWAT team at bay for five hours Tuesday was later erroneously reported to have been arrested in connection with the incident, officials said Thursday.

Police originally said Darryl Anthony Gordon, 33, was being held on suspicion of discharging a firearm within a dwelling.

Gordon, however, was asleep inside the home during the shooting and standoff, even while police and news helicopters hovered above. But in police and news reports, one of Gordon’s roommates, Joel Mullings, 29, was listed as the sleeper.

An officer had confused the names on a police jail log and mistakenly identified Gordon -- not Mullings -- as one of the people arrested, said Fullerton Police Sgt. Ron Gillett.

“This was all just a mix-up,” Gillett said. “We didn’t do anything wrong with the incident except we just dropped the ball on the wrong identification and it shouldn’t have happened that way. It was an honest mistake.”