Off-duty police officer intervenes in incident of aggression at the wheel and shoots man

Marguerite Walters was driving through a parking lot in Murrieta with her 14-year-old son around 9 a.m. Monday when she heard gunshots and instinctively tried to help.

The gunman was an off-duty Hemet police officer who shot a man after intervening during an apparent dispute between two motorists in a parking lot at 39540 Murrieta Hot Springs Road, Murrieta police said in a news release. The incident was apparently sparked by an incident of road rage, authorities said.

When she heard the gunshots, she called 911, Walters said. A dispatcher told her help was on the way, then she approached the scene to try to render aid.

“Several people were standing around him in shock, and he still had the gun pointed at the man he had shot,” Walters told the Times of the off-duty officer.

She said she told the gunman she was certified as a first aid instructor, but he initially wouldn't let her near him. But he eventually relented, Walters said, and then she examined the injured man, who was leaning against a parked vehicle.

“When I first saw him, I thought he was dead,” she said.

His pale face showed an expression of fear, Walters said, and he could not speak when she asked him simple questions. She found a single gunshot wound on his body that was cold to the touch, and she applied pressure until paramedics arrived.

Police said the man, who suffered multiple gunshot wounds, was taken to a hospital by ambulance in critical condition. His condition was later listed as stable.

The off-duty officer, whose name was not released, remained at the scene with a group of witnesses. Police learned the off-duty officer shot the man during the argument, but there were no details about why he opened fire.

A handgun was recovered at the crime scene and investigators were able to count all the shots fired.

According to a report by news channel KABC, a store window was smashed in the shooting.

A video taken by Walters' son shows a man wearing a baseball cap and a gray shirt pointing a gun at a man lying on the ground between two vehicles. Witnesses told the news station that the off-duty officer shot the man multiple times. A fake gun was also found at the scene, which may have belonged to the man who was shot.

In the video, a woman can be seen lying on the ground screaming and crying while the off-duty officer stands over her with his gun drawn. Walters later learned that the woman was the injured man's girlfriend. The woman could be heard screaming, “He's dead.”

According to Murrieta police, the off-duty officer is cooperating with the investigation, which is still in its early stages.

Police will investigate jointly with the Riverside County District Attorney's Office and the Riverside County Sheriff's Department. The District Attorney's Office will also conduct an independent investigation into the shooting.

The other person involved in the incident was still at the scene, Walters said, and watched in shock as the injured man lay bleeding on the ground.

After the shooting, Walters continued to contact her son to make sure he could process what he saw – a man shot and an off-duty police officer pointing a gun at his mother.

Although it is unclear who the attacker was who caused the shooting, Walters wants her son to understand that they just have to hope the injured man survives.

“It doesn't matter who he is or what he did,” she said. “We just have to pray.”