A 34-year-old Lake Forest man wanted on suspicion of domestic violence briefly pointed a handgun at undercover Orange County sheriff’s deputies in August before one deputy opened fire as the man ran away with the weapon still in his hand, video captured by a sheriff’s helicopter shows.
The deputy fired two shots at Ethan Chase Mull in a Lake Forest strip mall near El Toro and Trabuco roads, body-worn camera video shows. Mull fell forward and immediately turned over to his back after he was struck, with the handgun falling several feet in front of him, landing next to a pillar with a knife falling to his side.
According to the dispatch audio, deputies were told Mull had allegedly made statements that he planned to shoot law enforcement if it tried to contact him again, and he had no plan to go back to prison.
He suffered a non-life-threatening injury, Sgt. Gerard McCann says in a video presentation to the community about the shooting released this week that included the audio and the video.
The glass front door to a Postal Annex store was broken, but no one inside was harmed, with a deputy quickly going in to check on the employees.
The shooting occurred about 3 p.m. on Aug. 7.
Mull had just walked out of a smoke shop in the strip mall and toward his green Kawasaki motorcycle, parked outside, when undercover deputies arrived to try to detain him, video from the helicopter shows.
As the deputies’ vehicles pull up, Mull pulls out the handgun with his right hand. As he steps backward, he appears to briefly extend his right arm with the gun toward the vehicles, before turning around to flee. One deputy stops his SUV, opens the door, stands up from the driver’s seat and immediately fires two shots at the fleeing suspect.
After Mull falls down, the deputies command him to roll over to his stomach, but he says he cannot. The deputies ultimately roll him over before putting on handcuffs as Mull can be heard moaning in pain.
Deputies were keeping an eye on Mull after a deputy spoke with Mull’s mother who told the deputy that her son had assaulted her with a knife and was in possession of a handgun, according to dispatch audio included in the video.
The assault occurred the day before the shooting, sheriff’s officials said. Deputies also learned that he had felony warrants for his arrest.
Deputies were aware that Mull had been arrested in Irvine less than a month before on suspicion of burglary, grand theft, possession of a firearm and an assault weapon, possession of a controlled substance while armed, a felon in possession of body armor and unauthorized use of personal identifying information.
During the shooting, a deputy was bitten by a police K-9 unit and treated and released from a hospital.
The Orange County District Attorney’s Office is investigating the shooting.