Shooting haunts shop owner

Eron Ben-Yehuda

A business owner in a Huntington Beach strip mall wishes he could forget

the shootout Friday that left a suspect dead and an officer wounded.

“It was just probably the worst experience you can possibly imagine in

real life,” said Antonio Bryant, owner of the Mail Route.

At about 3:30 p.m., while Bryant helped customers, he heard some popping

sounds outside, he said.

“We didn’t know if it was fireworks or gunshots or what,” he said.

He rushed out to find Huntington Beach police officer Nick Ekovich Jr.,

52, fallen and bleeding on the ground nearby, he said.

Minutes earlier, the Green Tree Salon at the corner of Hamilton Avenue

and Bushard Street had erupted in violence after Ekovich, responding to a

911 call, interrupted a robbery in progress, police said.

He exchanged gunfire at close range with Eric Fredricksen, 35, of Santa

Ana, who shot the officer six times. Four shots hit Ekovich’s bulletproof

vest, Orange County sheriff spokesman Jim Amormino said.

“It probably saved his life,” he said.

Two rounds hit Ekovich in the left arm before he shot Fredricksen dead,

Amormino said.

Ekovich, a 25-year veteran, was rushed to UCI Medical Center in Orange

where he is listed in good condition. He is expected to be released any

day now, hospital spokeswoman Kim Pine said.

The incident shattered Bryant’s perception of the neighborhood.

“To see this here was just a mind blower,” he said. “You look at this

area and you don’t think these things can happen.”