Report of Officers, Doctor Firing From Limo Investigated

The California Highway Patrol is investigating a report that shots were fired from a limousine carrying two off-duty Los Angeles police officers and a doctor on a bar-hopping jaunt through Orange County last month, a CHP spokesman said Thursday.

So far, however, investigators have not been able to determine which, if any, of the three passengers in the rented limousine may have fired a gun late on the night of July 18, CHP Officer Richard Ferrola said. He declined to identify the doctor or the police officers.

On the night of incident, the CHP received reports from bystanders and residents in the area that shots may have been fired from a limousine traveling along Coast Highway in Laguna Beach, Ferrola said.

“There were numerous reports of noises heard coming from the limo that some people . . . thought were gunshots,” he said.

So far, Ferrola said, CHP investigators have found no physical evidence of shooting. And, he added, the limousine driver could not say for certain that the noises he heard coming from the passenger seats, separated from him by a glass partition, were gunfire.

Mark Crevelli, general manager of Executive Limousine of Newport Beach, said Thursday that he was awakened at about 2 a.m. the night of the incident by CHP officers who advised him that one of his vehicles had been involved in a shooting.

‘Wanted to Play Roy Rogers’

“Two LAPD officers and a doctor were out having a good time and decided they wanted to play Roy Rogers and fired some shots out of the vehicles,” Crevelli said.

Crevelli declined to identify the limousine driver, who he said was shaken by the experience.

“My driver took the attitude that it’s bad enough drivers have to deal with drunk people but a drunk with a gun!” Crevelli said. “He just prayed nothing would happen to him.”

“Unfortunately their attitude was: ‘I’m an LAPD officer, and I’m allowed to carry a gun.’ ”

Crevelli said the car had been rented by the doctor. All three men had been drinking at “around four bars” during the evening, “plus there was alcohol in the car,” he said.

The evening ended with all the passengers being taken to their homes in Laguna Beach and Santa Ana, he said.

The following day, Crevelli said, a police officer arrived at the limousine company’s office and took fingerprints from the car.

Ferrola said the CHP investigation may be completed in about a week when one of the officers and another witness return from vacations.

“You’re looking at a misdemeanor charge,” Ferrola said. “All we have to do is have somebody say somebody in that vehicle fired a shot . . . or pointed it (a gun) out the window . . . or the roof of the vehicle.”

Cmdr. William Booth, a Los Angeles Police Department spokesman, said an internal affairs investigation may follow “if it appears some off-duty members of this department were involved in some misconduct.”

In the meantime, he said, the CHP investigation is being monitored by Los Angeles police officials.

Mondays, it seems, have been eventful for Executive Limousine.

“The following week,” Crevelli said, “some lady left . . . at least a million dollars in jewelry--diamond necklaces, bracelets, earrings, precious gems like you wouldn’t believe and at least a 20-carat diamond ring.”

“She called back (the next day) and said: ‘I guess I left it there.’ She said, ‘I think I left some money too.”

Two thousand dollars in $100 bills were found with the jewelry, Crevelli said.

“We gave it back to her.”

“It’s been a pretty fun couple of weeks, to say the least,” Crevelli said.