LOS ANGELES (CNS) - A Los Angeles police officer who allegedly shot a fellow officer in the shoulder during an off-duty camping trip near Apple Valley was charged today with assault with a firearm.
Ismael Tamayo, 44, remains jailed and is due in a San Bernardino courtroom this afternoon for arraignment on the felony count, according to the San Bernardino County District Attorney's Office.
The charge includes allegations that Tamayo personally used a Glock .40-caliber handgun and that he personally inflicted great bodily injury on Mark Mascareno.
Tamayo was initially booked on suspicion of attempted murder.
The shooting in the Stoddard Wells off-highway vehicle area was reported to the Los Angeles Police Department just after 1 a.m. Sunday, according to the LAPD.
San Bernardino County sheriff's deputies responded to the scene and paramedics airlifted the 48-year-old wounded officer, who was shot in his shoulder, to a nearby hospital.
A third LAPD officer, identified by the department as an off-duty supervisor, was also present at the campsite in an unincorporated area of San Bernardino County, according to the LAPD.
Tamayo works in the department's Newton Division and lives in Ontario, according to the LAPD and San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department.
LAPD Force Investigation Division investigators responded to the scene and began an internal investigation.
Tamayo was relieved of duty pending the outcome of the criminal and administrative investigations, the LAPD said.
“The events overnight culminating in the serious injury to one of our off-duty officers, apparently at the hands of another member of the department, give me great concern,” LAPD Chief Michel Moore said Sunday. “I spoke earlier this morning with San Bernardino Sheriff John McMahon, pledging our full support of their criminal investigation. I am thankful our injured officer is in stable condition and is expected to survive. I am committed to determining what and how this happened.”
Greg Yacoubian, an attorney for Tamayo, told the L.A. Daily News that the LAPD's comments about the shooting were premature.
“I think once the investigation shakes out, he'll be cleared of any criminal wrongdoing,” Yacoubian told the newspaper. “I think it's obviously way too early to be making those kind of value judgments about what happened.”
The circumstances under which the shooting occurred are not yet known.
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