An off-duty police officer shot and killed a man who
attacked him at a Del Taco in Anaheim on Sunday afternoon, police said.
The officer, a 10-year veteran of the Gardena Police
Department, was with his young daughter at the Del Taco on Lincoln Avenue and Rio
Vista Street, said Sgt. Rick Martinez of the Anaheim Police
Department. The officer, whom Martinez declined to name, was in plainclothes.
As the officer walked out of the restaurant about 3:45
p.m., a 39-year-old man began to attack the off-duty officer “for some unknown
reason,” Martinez said. He said the suspect hit the officer with his hands and
pummeled him into the corner of the restaurant.
The officer tried to push the man off, but the man
continued to assault the officer, Martinez said.
The officer then pulled out a handgun and fired at least one
round at close range on the suspect, he said. The suspect was hit in the
abdomen. He later died.
broken jaw and nose, Martinez said.
Around a dozen people were inside the restaurant when the
shooting occurred, he said.
Before the shooting, the suspect was seen walking in and
out of stores in the shopping center near the Del Taco, Martinez said. Witnesses
reported that the man was talking to himself and appeared to be agitated and
acting unusual, he said. Martinez said the man may have been under the
influence of drugs.
Martinez did not know whether the Gardena Police Department
was conducting an investigation on the officer-involved shooting.
-My-Thuan Tran