Officer Had 90 Minutes Left on the Job : Victims: Slain reserve policeman was to join San Jose force. Partner grew up in Compton and returned to serve community.

It was his last day with the Compton police, his final patrol, with only 90 minutes left on his shift.

James MacDonald, a reserve Compton police officer, had planned to return home at 1:30 a.m., begin packing the next day and then head to San Jose, where he was scheduled to begin training as a full-time officer.

But MacDonald, 23, and his partner, Kevin Burrell, 29, a former all-conference basketball player at Cal State Dominguez Hills, died in a fusillade of shots Monday night, shortly after they pulled over what witnesses described as a suspicious-looking red pickup truck.

“Mac was a very sharp kid. . . . I know he would’ve made a tremendous cop,” said Lt. Gary Anderson, his voice breaking. He covered his eyes for a moment, regained his composure and said: “I just can’t believe it was his last ride.”

The death of an officer is a brutal blow for any police department. But in a small, tightknit department such as Compton’s, where the officers know each other by their first names, it is like losing a member of the family, Anderson said.

Late Monday night after the shooting, Compton police officers poured into the station. Officers who were on vacation, on afternoon shifts, on sick leave, all showed up and searched for the killers throughout the night. They interviewed residents door-to-door; they contacted their sources; they patrolled the area.

By morning, most were back at the station, exhausted and emotionally spent. A few officers broke down and cried when questioned by reporters. Some gathered behind the station in small groups, smoking, drinking coffee and trying to come to terms with the killings. Others met with the police chaplain and prayed.

“These officers are torn to bits and pieces. . . . You’ve never seen such sorrow and grief grip a department,” said the police chaplain, the Rev. E. Boyd Estes, who had just finished counseling a number of officers Tuesday morning. “These guys are all very close and they’re just trying to find the strength to cope with this situation.”

The two officers killed, both of whom were single, were an unlikely patrol team. MacDonald grew up in Santa Rosa, far from the inner city; he was small, blond and soft-spoken--an unimposing looking officer.

Burrell was enormous--6 feet, 7 inches tall and almost 300 pounds--and was a lifelong Compton resident. Many of the officers had known him since he was a teen-ager, when he was an Explorer Scout and answered phones at the station. He joined the department five years ago.

Burrell “was one of us,” said Gladys Russell, who showed up at City Hall on Tuesday to pay her respects. He understood the problems of Compton residents and he truly cared, Russell said.

She once encountered Burrell at a Compton intersection after a drive-by shooting, and she was surprised to see the burly officer standing over the body of a dead teen-ager, tears streaming down his face.

Now, at another Compton intersection, residents were mourning Burrell. At Dwight and Rosecrans avenues, where the officers were shot, Greg Woods wandered about, thinking about Burrell, a longtime friend.

“He loved this city,” said Woods, stopping at the Hercules Burger parking lot near the shooting site. “This was all he knew.”

Even some gang members mourned Burrell’s death, said Lorraine Cerventes, a liaison between the community and police. A number of “gangbangers called today to express concern,” she said. Burrell had grown up with many of them, she said, and they respected him because “he knew what life is like here.”

At Compton High School, Burrell was an all-league basketball player, and he was a star forward in college, where he led the conference in rebounding as a senior. Burrell had a 3-year-old son and came from a large family, most of whom still live in Compton.

“He always said he wanted to return to work in the community where he grew up,” said Dave Yanai, head coach at Dominguez Hills. “He really had a feeling for helping the people of Compton.”

Like Burrell, MacDonald was an accomplished athlete. He was the starting quarterback for his high school football team in Santa Rosa and an all-league point guard, said Piner High School Principal Joe Sewell.

“A lot of kids go through this high school but get lost in the maze. . . . Jimmy was a kid who stood out,” Sewell said. “He was involved in so many things and was such a great young kid, the kind of kid you remember. I wanted him to become a teacher.”

MacDonald decided to become a police officer while attending Cal State Long Beach, and he began working as a volunteer reserve officer to gain experience before he applied to various city police departments.

He was accepted by the San Jose Police Department and was scheduled to begin its academy in 11 days, Anderson said.