Two Shot by Plainclothes Officer in Santa Ana Alleged Robbery Bid

A plainclothes Orange police officer shot two men Sunday at a Santa Ana apartment complex, police said, after the two offered to sell the officer drugs, then pulled knives and demanded money.

The officer dropped his pistol after shooting and struggling with the suspects, and a woman picked the handgun up and fled with it, Orange Police Sgt. Timm Browne said.

One of the suspects, believed to have been wounded in the torso, escaped with the woman.

The other suspect, identified as Michael James Strickland, 31, of Santa Ana, was held on suspicion of attempted robbery and taken to Western Medical Center in Santa Ana, where he was being treated for gunshot wounds, Browne said.

A hospital spokesman said Strickland is in stable but guarded condition in the intensive-care ward.

The other suspect and the woman who fled with the officer’s handgun remain at large after a search of the area by Orange police, aided by Santa Ana officers and a county Sheriff’s Department helicopter, Browne said.

The plainclothes officer was not injured. “We won’t release his (the officer’s) name,” Browne said. “It’s just our policy.”

Browne said the county district attorney’s office will investigate the shooting, as is standard procedure in officer-involved shootings.

“I imagine we’ll give him (the officer) a couple days off, just routine practice,” Browne said. “It’s kind of up to the officer and the department.”

Plainclothes officers had gone to the apartment complex at 600 E. Wellington Ave., Santa Ana, to follow up a burglary investigation, Browne said.

Just one of them became involved struggling with the drug suspects, he said.

“They were not at this location to conduct a narcotics investigation with these suspects,” he said.