Deputy Is on Leave After Shooting

An off-duty Orange County sheriff’s deputy has been placed on a three-day administrative leave after he allegedly shot a Lake Mathews businessman during a confrontation on Saturday night in Riverside County, authorities said.

Riverside County sheriff’s detectives are investigating the incident, which has been described in two wildly different accounts. The deputy, David Loaiza, 42, has not been arrested or charged with a crime.

Loaiza told investigators that he was near the intersection of Olive Street and Hidden Valley Road when, after an argument, Carlo Terzian tried to run him over with his all-terrain vehicle, said Riverside County sheriff’s spokesman Dennis Gutierrez.

Terzian has a much different story. Terzian, 39, said he was riding his all-terrain vehicle through the rural area, and that two men on horseback lassoed him before Loaiza approached him on foot and shot him in the abdomen, according to his wife, Elidia Terzian.

She said she was riding in her own all-terrain vehicle alongside her husband that night, but does not remember what happened because she was knocked off her vehicle. “One minute I was riding alongside him,” she said. “Then the next thing I remember is him being airlifted.”

Gutierrez said investigators had not heard anything about lassoes or horses from the people they interviewed.

“I did not receive that information,” Gutierrez said. “There was an argument. The story we received is that Terzian attempted to run Loaiza over with his vehicle and [Loaiza] shot him.”

Loaiza will be allowed to return to work, said Orange County sheriff’s spokesman Jon Fleischman. If officials file charges, he will be placed on paid leave until the matter goes through the courts, he said.