Off-duty police officer shoots man in a Murrieta parking lot after intervening in road rage argument

Marguerite Walters was driving through a Murrieta parking lot around 9 a.m. Monday with her 14-year-old son when she heard gunshots and instinctively sought to help.

The shooter was an off-duty police officer from Hemet, who shot a man after intervening during an apparent argument between two motorists in a parking lot at 39540 Murrieta Hot Springs Road, the Murrieta Police Department said in a news release. The incident was apparently sparked by a road rage incident, authorities said.

When she heard the shots, Walters said, she called 911 and a dispatcher told her that help was on the way. Then she approached the scene to try to render aid.

“There were a number of people standing around in shock, and he still had the gun pointed at the man he shot,” Walters told The Times about the off-duty officer.

She said she told the shooter that she was certified to give first aid, but at first he did not let her approach. But then he relented, Walters said, and that’s when she checked the wounded man propped against a parked vehicle.

“When I first saw him I thought he was dead,” she said.

He had a look of fear on his pale face, Walters said, and he was unable to speak as she asked him basic questions. She found a single gunshot wound on his body, which was cold to the touch, and she applied pressure until paramedics arrived.

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Police said the man, who was suffering from multiple gunshot wounds, was taken by ambulance to a hospital in critical condition. He later was listed in stable condition.

The off-duty officer, whose name has not been released, remained at the scene with a group of witnesses. Police learned that during the argument, the off-duty officer shot at the man, but there were no details surrounding why he opened fire.

A handgun was recovered at the scene, and all shots fired have been accounted for by investigators.

A storefront window was shattered in the shooting, according to reporting from news station KABC.

Video footage recorded by Walters’ son shows a man in a baseball cap and a gray shirt pointing a handgun at a man lying on the ground between two vehicles. Witnesses told the news station that the off-duty officer shot the man multiple times, and a fake handgun was found on the scene that may have belonged to the man who was shot.

In the video, a woman can be seen screaming and crying on the ground as the off-duty officer stands over her with his gun drawn. Walters later learned that the woman was the wounded man’s girlfriend. That woman could be heard screaming, “He’s dead.”

The off-duty officer is cooperating with the investigation, which is in its initial phase, according to Murrieta police.

Police will launch an investigation along with the Riverside County District Attorney’s office and the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department. The district attorney’s office will also conduct an independent review of the shooting.

The other person who was involved in the road rage incident remained at the scene, Walters said, and looked on in shock as the wounded man bled on the ground.

Following the shooting, Walters has continued to check in with her son to make sure he’s able to process what he witnessed — a man who was shot and an off-duty police officer who pointed a gun at his mother.

Although it’s unclear who the aggressor was leading up to the shooting, Walters wants her son to know that they just have to hope that the wounded man pulls through.

“It doesn’t matter who he is or what he did,” she said. “We just need to pray.”