A gang member admitted he murdered Whittier Police Officer Keith Boyer during an interview recorded several days after a gunfight in February.
Michael Christopher Mejia said he wished he’d begun shooting sooner because he thought he could have killed a second officer.
“I delayed it. I should have smoked ‘em quicker,” Mejia told L.A. County Sheriff’s Department detectives. “Because I know they would’ve dropped me, they wouldn’t feel sorry for my family,” he said.
An audio recording of the interview was played in court in Norwalk Thursday during a preliminary hearing, in which prosecutors outlined the evidence ahead of a jury trial.
Mejia admitted shooting the officers and to murdering his cousin, Roy Torres, whose body was found a few hours before the confrontation with police February 20.
Boyer was the first Whittier Police Department officer to be killed in the line of duty in nearly 40 years.
Officer Patrick Hazell was shot during the gunfight and survived.
Mejia was shot in the back. The interview was recorded in a hospital.
The preliminary hearing was expected to end Friday.
(Mejia booking photos via CDCR/LASD)