Officer Kills Theft Suspect

An off-duty Compton police officer shot and fatally wounded a robbery suspect Thursday during a Buena Park bank robbery, police said.

Authorities said the slain man, Steven D. Smallwood, 27, had been convicted of robbing the same bank twice before and had allegedly escaped from a Garden Grove halfway house on Jan. 21.

Buena Park Police spokesman Terry Branum said Officer Paul Wing, 25, was making a transaction at the Wells Fargo Bank office at 8781 Knott Ave. at about 2:15 p.m. when a man wearing a ski mask entered the bank through a side door.

When the masked man brandished a .38-caliber revolver and announced, “This is a robbery, nobody move,” Wing pulled an automatic pistol from his waistband and identified himself as a police officer, Branum said.

The man later identified as Smallwood fired first but his two shots both missed Wing, Branum said.

Wing then fired once, hitting the man in the upper body before the officer’s gun jammed, Branum said.

Smallwood staggered out to the parking lot and collapsed.