Orange County deputy shoots, injures man who allegedly caused disturbance

A man was hospitalized in critical condition Friday after being shot by an Orange County Sheriff’s deputy in Lake Forest.

The sheriff’s department said the man was sought after causing a disturbance at his former girlfriend’s home in Rancho Mission Viejo, a town 4 miles away from Lake Forest.

The suspect had gone to the Rancho Mission Viejo home at around 2:30 a.m. Friday near Cow Camp Road and Antonio Parkway, officials said. The sheriff’s department soon got a call from a man who said his girlfriend’s ex-boyfriend was at the house, causing the disturbance.

“The boyfriend opened the door and saw the suspect. And he brandished a handgun,” Sgt. Gerard McCann told NBC Los Angeles.

The caller was able to get back inside the house without getting hurt. And the armed suspect left the house before deputies arrived, the sheriff’s department said.

Within an hour, the deputies found the suspect near Rimgate Park in Lake Forest. When they approached the man, he took off in his car.

After a brief pursuit, the man got out of the car and rushed toward the deputies, McGann said.

“At that point, a deputy of all shooting occurred,” McGann said, adding the suspect was shot multiple times. “A handgun and a knife will recover to the scene.”

A neighbor who heard the law enforcement response and gunshots said he was startled by the early morning commotion in his “great” neighborhood. He said while the investigation continued during the morning hours, it affected people in the area.

“A lot of the neighbors around here actually had to take all the kids on the block to school this morning because they were stuck down there,” TJ Quigley, a Lake Forest resident of 10 years, said. “We got about four or five of the kids piled in the car and took them off to school this morning because they were kind of locked in.”

After learning about the shooting, which took place after a possible domestic disturbance, Quigley, a father with a 16-year-old daughter, said the incident gave him a pause and made him think about his own family.

“You start dating people, and what that’s going to look like — it kind of like scares you a little bit,” Quigley said. “You don’t want to see it. There’s so much stuff going on the world right now.”