Officers’ Blood Brings a Sea of Blue

Within moments after a man gunned down two La Habra police officers, authorities from more than 10 agencies flooded the small city.

It was textbook mutual aid, La Habra Capt. Jeff Love said, and a response he found moving.

So many cops descended on the scene -- more than 120, according to official estimates -- that when the alleged gunman tried to hide inside a shop Monday evening, employees didn’t have to pick up the phone to call 911. They walked outside and alerted an officer.

“It’s one of these extraordinary events that happen ... and we all wear the same uniform until the job is done,” said Fullerton Police Sgt. Steve Matson, who responded to the shooting.

“We work the job, not the jurisdiction.”

La Habra police on Tuesday identified their injured as Officer John Jaime, 35, a 12-year department veteran, and Cpl. Kirk Lotzgesell, 37, a 15-year veteran. Both were recovering from single gunshot wounds and were expected to be released soon, department spokeswoman Cindy Knapp said.

The officers were conducting a routine traffic stop about 4:30 p.m. Monday and running background checks on the two suspects, David L. Mosqueda, 30, of Los Angeles and Andrew R. Gonzales, 28, of Inglewood, when Gonzales allegedly exited the white 1998 Toyota 4-Runner and shot the officers.

Mosqueda, who was driving and has a history of weapons offenses, surrendered immediately. Gonzales fled on foot, police said.

About an hour later, Gonzales -- a parolee with a history of attempted robberies -- walked into a store at a nearby strip mall on West La Habra Boulevard, police said. Employees noticed that he seemed nervous, and they flagged nearby officers.

Gonzales allegedly ducked out the back door, only to encounter two Fullerton police detectives. He fired at them; they fired back, hitting him six or seven times in the torso and leg, Knapp said.

He remains in stable condition at L.A. County-USC Medical Center.

Charges against both men are pending.

La Habra resident Nancy Renteria, who lives across the street from where police stopped the suspects, said she had heard gunshots in La Habra before.

But Monday afternoon, the gunshots kept coming closer and closer, until she heard them hitting her house. One bullet bore through the wooden fence enclosing her front porch. Another smashed through the screen door.

One bore through the wooden wall and through a cardboard box in her dining room, where she was eating dinner with her family, including three daughters, ages 4, 3 and 6 months.

As the gunshots got closer, the family hit the floor. She and her boyfriend shoved their children into the kitchen.

“I feel strange now,” Renteria said, as she pointed to the evidence stickers marked “A” and “B” that investigators left behind.

“I’m just very grateful my kids are OK and they didn’t get hurt.”