BREAKING NEWS:

An off-duty Costa Mesa police officer was attacked from behind before identifying himself as an officer, showing ID and shooting two of the attackers outside a Mexican restaurant in Temecula on Saturday, Riverside sheriff’s investigators said Tuesday.

The officer, who authorities decline to identify, was hit in the head from behind by a chair or other hard object as he sat outside the Bank of Mexican Food restaurant by Shaun Vilan, 30, Taylor Willis, 22, and two or three other men, investigator Jerry Franchville said.

“Witnesses could hear him verbally saying he was an off duty [officer],” Franchville said.

As blood ran from the officer’s head, he pulled out his gun and fired at his two nearest attackers, Franchville said. Vilan was shot in the chest and left arm and later died from his wounds. Willis was shot once each in the thigh and the buttocks, investigators said.

Franchville would not officially say the officer fired in self defense.

“That’s for the district attorney to decide,” he said.

The officer is recovering at home and is on paid administrative leave, Costa Mesa police officials said.

JOSEPH SERNA may be reached at (714) 966-4619 or at joseph.serna@latimes.com.