Santa Ana Police Investigator Is Involved in N.Y. Shootout

A Santa Ana police investigator working with federal agents was involved in a New York City gun battle Wednesday night that left one man dead after an undercover drug operation went sour, according to police.

The unidentified Santa Ana investigator was not injured in the Manhattan shootout that left a suspect dead, another wounded and a federal agent hospitalized, according to police and federal officials.

The firefight in the parking lot of a McDonald’s restaurant was the unexpected climax of a sting operation targeting drug dealers on Manhattan’s West Side, according to New York police spokesman Robert Samuel.

The veteran Santa Ana police investigator was on temporary assignment with a Drug Enforcement Administration task force when he and another undercover agent were confronted by four gunmen, according to police and federal officials.

The wounded officer was a 39-year-old customs agent also on loan to the DEA task force, according to Treasury Department undersecretary Raymond W. Kelly, a former New York City police commissioner.

The agent, whose name was also not available, was shot in the buttocks and was in stable condition at Bellevue Hospital.

Officials said the undercover officers were meeting Wednesday night with a group of men who were supposed to help them set up an arrangement to launder a large sum of money, Kelly said.

But the undercover pair arrived for the meeting at a fast food restaurant, four men got out of a car and opened fire, apparently intending to steal the money, police said. Federal agents stationed nearby rushed in, arresting two other suspects.

Santa Ana Police Lt. Robert Helton, who supervises internal affairs investigations, flew to New York late Wednesday to gather information on the incident, according to department sources.

The Associated Press also contributed to this report.