Click here for the update on the coroner ruling the death a suicide.
See the update at the end of this post with police identifying the dead man as Simon Buckles, 27, of Anaheim, and details culled from social media and the fellow's brother.
ORIGINAL POST, JUNE 13, 11:49 A.M.: A man who assaulted his boss at a Fullerton clothing manufacturer and later returned with a gun was shot and killed by a police officer Wednesday evening, according to authorities.
Neither the officer nor the dead man have been identified, but the site was in the 1400 block of East Valencia Drive in a light industrial section of Fullerton.
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We do know that Fullerton Police Sgt. Jeff Stuart told City News Service a cop from his shop responded to the call about a business owner being attacked by an employee around 6 p.m. Wednesday.
The attacker was not present when the officer arrived, but he returned carrying a handgun which, according to Stuart, he lifted and pointed at the cop.
Really bad move.
“As he approached, the suspect then pointed the handgun in the direction of the officers and other victims,” Stuart reportedly said.
The officer responded by shooting the man, who was pronounced dead at the scene. His handgun was obviously recovered.
His name was withheld pending notification of family, Stuart explained.
As is routine in officer-involved shootings around here, the Orange County District Attorney's office is investigating.
UPDATE, JUNE 14, 12:07 P.M.: Fullerton Police have identified the man an officer shot and killed Wednesday evening as Simon Buckles, 27, of Anaheim.
The original police report identified him as a worker at a clothing manufacturer in the 1400 block of East Valencia Drive, Fullerton. According to his Facebook page, Simon Buckles was an office worker at VND Clothing Co., 1438 E Valencia Dr., Fullerton.
His brother, Andrew Buckles of Fullerton, tells the Weekly SImon essentially “suicided by cop.”*
Simon Buckles was single and originally from Fullerton, where he attended Sunny Hills High School and Fullerton College, his Facebook page indicates. He was a member in good standing with the Brea-based Edgemont Roleplaying & Adventurer's Club, a Dungeons & Dragons meet-up group.
Fullerton Police Sgt. Jeff Stuart says investigators still do not know what motivated Buckles' alleged attack on a boss. The officer fired at the gunman, the spokesman added, because the cop feared for his life and the lives of others nearby.
*Note: some details have been removed since the original publication of this update at the family's request.
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OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.