4 Officers Charged in Off-Duty Shooting Spree

Four Los Angeles Police Department officers have been accused in a drunken, off-duty shooting spree in July as they drove through Montebello after a late-night party, authorities announced Friday.

The officers, who have been relieved of duty pending an LAPD administrative hearing, were accused of indiscriminately firing at least 16 rounds. No one was injured. But the gunfire prompted a number of 911 calls to Montebello police, who arrested the LAPD officers in a speeding sport utility vehicle carrying beer and weapons.

“Clearly, their activity endangered citizens,” said Deputy Dist. Atty. Thomas Krag, who filed the felony charges late Thursday. “This is exactly the type of conduct the law is designed to prohibit. And police officers should know that more than anyone.”

Officer Steven Michael O’Neal, 30, was charged with one count of permitting a passenger to shoot from a vehicle and two misdemeanor counts related to driving under the influence. Five hours after the incident, O’Neal’s blood-alcohol level was 0.11%, higher than the legal limit of 0.08%, Krag said. A criminologist estimated that O’Neal’s actual blood-alcohol level at the time of the shooting may have been two or three times the legal limit, Krag said.

Charged with one count each of discharging a firearm with gross negligence were Nicholas Abdelkerim, 28, and Cesar Roberto Huezo and Osbaldo Camacho, both 27. All of the officers face prison terms of three years if convicted. They were assigned to the Southeast Division at the time of the shooting.

Attorney Daryl Mounger, who has been representing the officers in the LAPD’s internal investigation, could not be reached for comment Friday about the criminal charges.

An LAPD spokesman said the department had no comment. The incident is the latest embarrassment for the department, which is the subject of an expanding corruption probe centered in the LAPD’s Rampart Division.

According to prosecutor Krag, the shootings began shortly after 3 a.m. on July 30 when the officers and two women left a party at a Whittier restaurant where Sheriff’s Department personnel were celebrating the end of their probationary period.

With O’Neal behind the wheel, Krag said, the vehicle traveled through Montebello with the officers shooting at the intersection of Olympic Boulevard and 4th Street and at Montebello City Park, 10 blocks away.

The gunfire brought a number of emergency police calls, authorities said. “You could almost trace their route,” by the calls, one police official said Friday.

The four officers are scheduled to surrender on the charges at their April 17 arraignment in Los Angeles Superior Court. Their recommended bail will be $25,000 each.

The two women stopped with the officers were not charged.