Officers Outgunned by the Killer’s Arsenal

ORANGE — Arturo Reyes Torres came prepared for a battle, and when it was over he had joined a growing gallery of killers who have used heavy firepower to mete out their vengeance or fuel their crime sprees.

Torres was shot down Thursday in a gun battle in which more than 300 rounds were fired and five people were left dead, including Torres. And, in a now familiar refrain, police said afterward that they had been outgunned by a suspect who had gotten access to weapons once exclusive to the military.

“It’s chilling to hear ‘Suspect with AK47’ go out on the radio, followed by ‘Multiple shots fired and officer down,’ ” Orange Police Lt. Art Romo said Friday as police pieced together Torres’ actions and motives. “Our officer who was wounded was shot right through his vest. That’s scary.”

The street officers who rushed to the Caltrans maintenance yard where Torres, a former employee, went on a rampage arrived with standard-issue 9-millimeter and .45-caliber handguns and the 12-gauge pump shotguns that are secured on racks in their patrol cars. They were confronted by a former Marine with a high-powered military rifle, along with a shotgun and handgun.

The ensuing gun battle left Officer John Warde hospitalized with a stomach wound. Romo said the officers at the scene were fortunate to escape with their lives. “It’s not a good situation to be in,” he said.

The Orange Police Department, like other agencies, has high-powered automatic weapons, but they are reserved for SWAT officers and detectives who handle hostage situations and standoffs, Romo said.

Four SWAT-trained patrol officers were on duty Thursday, and in keeping with department policy, they all had assault rifles in their car trunks. They were spread across the city and arrived at the crime scene “after the shooting was over and the shooter was dead,” Romo said.

The issue of police firepower was highlighted earlier this year after Los Angeles Police Department officers in North Hollywood scrambled for cover in the face of relentless gunfire from two bank robbers wearing body armor and carrying automatic weapons.

That incident was the highest-profile confrontation between police and suspects armed with assault weapons, but there have been four other Orange County cases in which patrol officers faced the high-powered weapons--the most recent last month in Anaheim, where police exchanged fire with a New Mexico man who had assembled a cache of assault weapons and grenades in a motel.

The North Hollywood gun battle prompted Tustin city officials to spend $70,200 on more powerful weapons and training, and Santa Ana police will soon put AR-15 assault rifles--the civilian model of the military’s M-16--in the hands of 75 non-SWAT officers and give patrol officers the option of swapping their shotguns for high-powered rifles.

But the escalation in firepower has created some uneasy feelings, both within law enforcement and among watchdog groups. Officials with the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California have urged further study of the issue, noting that some studies show that police miss their targets 80% of the time.

Also, the Police Foundation in Washington has noted that the more powerful weapons also are larger, harder to handle and, in some instances, less accurate than standard-issue police weaponry.

The public alarm and media attention created by assault weapons may be overreactions, according to Orange County Sheriff’s Capt. Ron Wilkerson, whose agency is still studying the North Hollywood incident for insights into its own policies.

Wilkerson points out that “a hunting rifle or any other rifle” has enough power to pierce a standard-issue bullet-resistant vest, and that people tend to fixate on assault weapons because of their reputations.

Still, he said the number of shots fired by Torres shows that the assault weapons can turn a single gunman into a killing machine and “everybody’s worst nightmare.”

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Hellfire on Batavia

Most of the victims in Thursday’s shooting spree in a Caltrans maintenance yard were killed as Arturo Reyes Torres walked around an office trailer, firing into it. How the shootings took place:

1. Torres pulls into driveway, gets out of car, shoots and kills Hal Bierlein, who is sitting in his Volkswagen

2. He drives to the back of the yard, gets out of car, circles trailer while firing more than 70 AK47 rounds through windows, killing three and injuring two

3. Torres gets back in car, drives to yard gate

4. He is confronted by police; shots exchanged

5. He flees south on Batavia Street

6. Gunman makes left-hand turn, ends up in westbound traffic lanes

7. Mercedes blocked in turn lane by white BMW, police form blockade

8. Gunman gets out of car armed with AK47 rifle, shotgun and handgun, shoots officer in stomach

9. Police return fire; gunman dies at scene

Source: Orange Police Department; Researched by DAVID REYES / Los Angeles Times