Careening Sequence of Violence Claims Officer

Los Angeles police Monday worked to piece together the violent sequence of events that left a 27-year-old police officer and two other men, including a suspected killer, dead.

Officer Brian Brown, the single father of a young son, was killed during the second of three related shootings that began near Culver City about 9:30 p.m. Sunday and ended about 20 minutes later at Los Angeles International Airport after a brief car chase. Throughout the day, LAPD officials remained tight-lipped about the names and backgrounds of the officers’ alleged assailants.

Late Monday, however, the Los Angeles County coroner’s office released the name of Brown’s alleged killer, who was shot to death in the gun battle with police. Authorities identified the man as Oscar Zatarain, 23.

Court records show that a man named Oscar Zatarain--also known by the street alias Lil’ Trigger--was charged in 1992 with attempted murder. Details of that case were not immediately available. Police refused to comment on Zatarain’s criminal record or on the identity of his alleged accomplice, who was shot and wounded by police at the airport. Police also declined to identify the man that the two suspects are alleged to have killed moments before Brown and his partner happened upon them.

Brown, a former Marine who was awarded the Purple Heart in Somalia, was a highly regarded officer within the LAPD. After only three years on the job, he was promoted to field training officer. His partner at the time of the shooting was a probationary officer.

Brown was a single parent raising his 7-year-old son, Dylon, police said. At the hospital where Brown was treated before he was pronounced dead, Dylon faced red-eyed officers asking them, “Why did my daddy have to die?” said Cmdr. Dave Kalish, the LAPD’s spokesman.

Capt. Gary Williams, who supervised Brown at the LAPD’s Pacific Division, said he talked with the slain officer’s son and father early Monday. He said Brown’s son told him that he was proud of his father, but always feared that his father might one day get hurt because of his work.

“He’s a very mature, very bright kid,” Williams said. “He took it hard.”

Mayor’s Response

In a prepared statement, Mayor Richard Riordan said it was “a sad day in the city of Los Angeles. A young, brave officer in the prime of his life was senselessly gunned down while doing what he loved: protecting and serving his community.”

According to police, Officers Brown and Francisco Dominguez saw two suspects--one of whom reportedly was armed with an assault rifle--fleeing in a car from the 3900 block of Centinela Avenue, where a man had been shot to death moments earlier.

The officers chased the suspects’ Honda for several miles until the driver apparently lost control and spun out near the Fox Hills shopping mall.

As patrol vehicles approached, Zatarain--the passenger in the car--allegedly opened fire with what police said was an assault rifle. Brown, who was driving his squad car, was fatally shot in the head.

Dominguez and two other officers, who had joined the chase, returned fire, killing Zatarain while he was sitting in the car they had been pursuing. The second suspect then fled on foot to a nearby convenience market, where he stole a taxi, police said.

By that time, other officers had responded to the scene and continued to pursue the suspect in the stolen taxi. The suspect drove about five miles to the airport, where he rammed several cars parked at the curb of the terminal used by Southwest Airlines and then ran away from the terminal toward the parking lot across the street.

As he tried to escape, the suspect “turned and faced officers, pointing a dark-colored object at them that appeared to be a handgun,” police said in a news release.

Two officers “in defense of their lives” opened fire at the fleeing suspect, hitting him several times while holiday travelers ran for cover, police said. The suspect was apparently unarmed at the time he was shot at the airport. The dark object that officers saw was apparently a glove, police later said.

The wounded suspect was in stable condition after surgery Monday. Like Zatarain, police said he is in his early 20s. Both suspects are believed to have gang affiliations in the Inglewood area, sources said.

In response to questions at a Monday news conference, Police Chief Bernard C. Parks said the officers’ decision to fire on the second suspect in the crowded airport was justified, considering the circumstances.

Police declined to release the name of the man fatally shot on Centinela Avenue. He also was described as a Latino in his early 20s. The motive for that shooting was unknown, police said.

“Our investigation is continuing,” Parks said.

In addition to the Ruger Mini 14 assault rifle that was used to shoot Brown, police recovered another assault rifle, an AK-47, at the Centinela shooting scene. Police declined to speculate on whether the weapon belonged to the suspects, the victim or another party.

The news of Brown’s killing shook officers throughout the LAPD, which has seen three officers killed in the line of duty this year.

At the morning roll call at the LAPD’s Harbor Division in San Pedro, officers sat in silence and bowed their heads as they heard the news. Throughout the day, officers passed around thin black bands to place around their badges.

Honored for Excellence

Irmina Dumaplin, a Harbor Division bicycle officer, was in the same Police Academy class as Brown and was often partnered with him in physical training exercises throughout their seven months at the academy.

She said Brown was the top shooter in their class and received an award for his excellence in executing police tactics. Brown was a “fun guy, very sharp, very self-confident,” she said.

“If you tell him to swim 15 miles with a 50-pound weight on his back in the sea and tell him he can’t do it, he’ll do it just to prove you wrong,” said Dumaplin, still referring to Brown in the present tense.

Dumaplin said she found it hard to believe that her former classmate who prided himself on being “tactically safe” and the “best shot in the class” had been killed so early in his career.

“To hear something like this is shocking,” she said. “This guy loved being a cop. All he wanted to do was do his job--put the bad guys away. Unfortunately, this is what happens when you try to put the bad guys away.”

Officer Justin Bergmann, who knew Brown, said he felt numb.

“He was just a very capable person,” he said, adding that Brown was a tactics and firearms instructor in the Marines. “He had a lot of life experience. . . . He’s a dedicated father. He talked about [his son] all the time. He was a good dad.”

At the LAPD’s Pacific Division, where Brown had worked for the past six weeks, department psychologists were sent to help officers cope with the loss.

Capt. Williams called the slain officer “absolutely one of the finest officers I’ve ever seen.” He said the division’s Christmas party, which was scheduled for next Saturday, has been canceled because of the tragic events.

Meanwhile, residents of the well-maintained, blue-brick apartment building where Sunday’s gunfire first erupted said the shooting was unusual for the area.

“This has never happened before, not in the six years we have been here,” said Dora Cano, 37, who was folding laundry when she heard gunshots in the alley outside her first-floor apartment. She and her 18-year-old son ducked for cover.

“There was a popping sound coming down the alley,” she said. “We got down on the floor. There were more than 12 shots.”

The residents of the two-story apartments in the 3900 block of Centinela said they believe that the gunmen were chasing the young victim on foot behind the dozens of units.

The apartment building was scarred with the pockmarks of bullet holes from the shooting. A candle flickered next to a small bouquet of flowers left in front of the building where the unidentified shooting victim had died.

Residents said they had never seen the man before.

With his death, Brown became the 189th LAPD officer to be killed in the line of duty. He was the third officer slain this year. On New Year’s Eve, Officer Steven Gajda was mortally wounded after struggling with an armed murder suspect outside a boisterous party in Boyle Heights. On Aug. 9, Officer Filbert H. Cuesta was shot and killed as he sat in his patrol car while awaiting backup outside a loud wedding party attended by suspected gang members in the Crenshaw area.

Times staff writers John Mitchell, Joseph Trevino and Seema Mehta contributed to this story.

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Deadly Gun Battles

(1) About 9:30 p.m. Sunday night police respond to murder scene in 3800 block of Centinela Avenue where one man had been killed.

(2) Chase ensues and two LAPD patrol cars pursue suspects to Fox Hills Mall area where Officer Brown and one suspect are killed. Second suspect hijacks a taxi at nearby market.

(3) Another chase ensues to LAX where suspect crashes his car. Gun battle erupts outside lower level of Terminal One. Suspect is wounded.