Anaheim Officer Held in Slaying of Corona Man : Violence: Riverside County investigator says shooting stemmed from a relationship the victim had with the veteran policeman's wife.

Anaheim Officer Held in Slaying of Corona Man : Violence: Riverside County investigator says shooting stemmed from a relationship the victim had with the veteran policeman’s wife.

By REBECCA TROUNSON and DAVID REYES

Dec. 18, 1994 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITERS

RIVERSIDE — A veteran Anaheim police officer was arrested Saturday on suspicion of murder in the shooting death of his wife’s lover, authorities said.

Thomas Alex Minn, 36, a motorcycle officer who has been with the department for 14 years, was being held in lieu of $250,000 bail at the Robert Pressley Detention Center in Riverside.

Minn is accused of repeatedly shooting Paul Richard Hangen in the head with his semiautomatic, .45-caliber service weapon, Riverside County sheriff’s investigator Mark Lohman said.

Hangen, 28, a Corona welder, was found dead just after 7 p.m. Friday inside a pickup truck parked outside a home in the city of Norco, which borders Corona. Minn was arrested about 2:30 p.m. Saturday at his home in Corona, Lohman said.

Anaheim police officials were tight-lipped about the arrest Saturday, saying only that Minn has been placed on administrative leave. But one veteran Anaheim officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity, described Minn as a “good officer” who was well-liked by his colleagues.

Lohman said the shooting stemmed from a conflict between the two men because Hangen “was having a relationship with Minn’s wife.”

Hangen’s brother, Tim Hangen, 34, contacted at his mother’s Corona home late Saturday, also confirmed that his brother, who was not married, had been having an affair with the officer’s wife. He also said that his brother, who worked for a Corona engineering firm, had lived with the Minns for about six months, but moved out about two months ago.

“I just want people to know that he never did anything to hurt anybody,” Tim Hangen said. “He didn’t do anything to deserve this. This family didn’t do anything to deserve this.”

Minn and Hangen had “started out as friends” when they first met, about a year ago, Tim Hangen said. Hangen, a graduate of Norco High School, was known by the nickname “Cowboy.”

“He was a good man,” his brother said. “He loved horses, rodeo and country music.”

No one answered the door at the Minns’ large two-story Corona home Saturday night, where the lights of a Christmas tree glowed through a thin drape.

“I was under the impression they were good friends, but I thought that even before this happened it was a strange situation,” said neighbor Terry Towns, 31, a mechanic for an Orange County trucking firm. “Tom seemed very tolerant toward ‘Cowboy.’ ”