By Brooklynn Wong
The Orange County District Attorney’s Office last week released the findings of its investigation into the April 2018 officer-involved shooting that left suspect Petrica Muntean dead.
According to the DA’s published report, “there is no evidence of criminal culpability on the part of” the involved officers, “and there is substantial evidence their actions were reasonable and justified under the circumstances when they fatally shot Muntean on April 13, 2018.”
Muntean, a 24-year-old male, had a lengthy criminal history, including charges of vehicle theft, evading a peace officer, possession of controlled substance paraphernalia and burglary.
This also was not his first involvement in an officer-involved shooting. In 2013 Muntean was driving a stolen vehicle in Santa Ana, and failed to yield when Santa Ana Police attempted to pull him over. A pursuit ensued, and following erratic and dangerous behavior by Muntean, SAPD officers discharged their weapons and Muntean was shot in the arm. He later pled guilty and was sentenced to 16 months in state prison.
But on the night of April 12, 2018, in Anaheim, police received a call saying that Muntean was “hallucinating and causing a disturbance in the street.” The woman who called the police said it appeared that Muntean was under the influence of a narcotic and/or suffering from a mental condition.
Police arrived on-scene and saw Muntean holding what appeared to be a firearm under his chin. When officers ordered Muntean to drop the weapon, he refused and walked away from them. Police lost sight of him, but set up a perimeter and searched the area to no avail.
But the next morning at 6:24 a.m., APD received a call of a disturbance at Carl’s Jr. at 275 South Harbor Blvd. When officers arrived at the restaurant, the man who had been causing the disturbance was already gone. However a look at surveillance footage showed that the man in question was Muntean.
Just after 7 a.m., officers saw that Muntean was sitting on a curb outside. He was holding a towel, and his hand was concealed under the towel. When officers instructed Muntean to uncover his hand, he would not, and stood up and again began walking away, repeatedly saying, “I didn’t do nothing.”
An Officer Johnson said to Muntean, “It’s okay, buddy. Just sit down. It’s going to be okay, buddy. We just want to talk to you.”
An Officer Gonzalez told him, “We don’t want to hurt you. We want to help you.”
But Muntean continued walking away, and a police car as well as officers on foot, slowly pursued him at a distance as he walked down an alley and continued to ignore officer commands.
According to officers, it appeared that Muntean again had an object resembling a gun held to his chin.
As Muntean neared South Citron Street, he began running. He was now entering a busy area with schools in close proximity, on a weekday morning.
More officers arrived in the area, armed with a less lethal shotgun, a firearm intended to inflict pain as a deterrent to the suspect, but not enter the body like normal ammunition.
Two rounds of the less lethal ammunition were fired, but according to the report, they “were ineffective because Muntean continued to evade the officers.”
He then entered the housing complex at 150 South Seneca Cir. Two more less lethal rounds were fired, and Muntean reacted by yelping, but continued running.
They all eventually reached a dead end, surrounded by a wall, where a car was parked. Muntean had taken cover behind the car.
An Officer Horn saw Muntean point his weapon in his direction. Horn later said at this time he decided to engage Muntean before he engaged him or other officers.
Horn put aside his less lethal shotgun and drew his handgun.
Other officers and a witness confirmed that it seemed that Muntean was positioning himself to fire shots at the officers.
At that point, Officer Horn and an Officer Thomas both began firing at Muntean. As soon as Muntean fell on his side, the officers stopped shooting.
The Anaheim Fire Department was called on-scene and in the meantime, officers performed CPR. At 7:20, paramedics arrived and found that Muntean did not have a heart rate or blood pressure. They provided him ventilation with a bag valve mask and chest compressions. He was transported to UCI Medical Center.
The gun Muntean had been holding was recovered, and was found to be a “Crossman, black metal CO2 powered semi-automatic BB handgun with a 20 round drop-out magazine.”
Once at the hospital, a CT scan showed that Muntean had two bullets in his neck and brain stem, making him a quadriplegic.
With care over the next few days, his condition appeared to be improving. However, Muntean ultimately communicated that he wanted to be made comfortable and not be operated on further. He requested his breathing tube be removed and that he not be resuscitated.
On April 27 he was declared deceased.
When interviewed afterward, officers repeated that they felt not only their lives were in danger, but they did not want to let Muntean anywhere near the schools in the neighborhood where students were arriving, with a potentially dangerous weapon.
In the months since then, a full investigation has been conducted by APD Homicide Detail, Major Incident Review Team and the Office of Independent Review, with the objective of determining “whether the conduct of Officers Horn and Thomas on April 13, 2018, was criminally culpable and without justification.” Investigators would need to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that there was not legal justification for the officers’ actions, to be able to charge them with a criminal violation.
And ultimately, investigators determined the following:
“Officers Horn and Thomas were justified in believing Muntean posed a significant threat of death or serious physical injury to themselves and others…While it was later determined that what was believed to be a semi-automatic handgun, was in fact a BB gun, all officers who came into contact with Muntean…believed it to be a semi-automatic handgun capable of firing live ammunition. The reasonable belief the gun was real coupled with Muntean’s actions of pointing the gun in the direction of the pursuing officers caused Officers Horn and Thomas to believe Muntean posed a deadly threat to not only themselves, but those who lived inside of the apartment complex and the surrounding neighborhood.”
Muntean behaved erratically, repeatedly ignored officers’ commands to show his hands, and gave officers good reason to believe that the community was endangered.
All officers were equipped with body worn cameras, which were activated at the time of the shooting. Footage can be seen at http://orangecountyda.org/reports/videoandaudio/default.asp.
