Local Teen Found Not Guilty of Trying to Kill Police

A Fountain Valley teen was found not guilty Monday of attempted murder and assault with a deadly weapon on a police officer.

David Dinh, 18, was arrested in Dec. 28, 2010 after firing at Fountain Valley Police . Dinh was 17 at the time of the incident, and was taken to the hospital after being shot several times by police.

Dinh was convicted on the lesser counts of attempted voluntary manslaughter and assault with a firearm, the Orange County Register reported Monday.

"This was a very unfortunate incident," Dinh's attorney, Lew Rosenblum, said. Certainly the officers didn't deserves to get fired upon, but the fact of the matter is that they were dealing with a young man who was mentally disturbed, and they could have dealt with the station in a better manner rather than calling him out and waiting for him to make a mistake so they could shoot him. It was just a very unfortunate incident all around."

Rosenblum said that his client thought he was shooting at the man who lived in the apartment where the incident occurred, and that he was able to do so only because the apartment happened to be filled with weapons an ammunition. Two days after the incident—and after being treated with anti-psychotic medication, Dinh claimed he fired the shots to distract police so that he could run away, Rosenblum said.

"A lot of it was reconstructing in his mind what he did," he said. "It's kind of like someone who's really drunk: 'How did I get here?' Before he went into surgery, they asked him why he shot, and he said he thought someone was behind a tree and someone was going to kill him."

Dinh now faces a potential prison term of between 4 1/2 to 16 years, as opposed to the potential life sentence he could have been handed had he been found guilty of the attempted murder charge, Rosenblum said.

"I know he had to be accountable for what he did, but I tried to avoid the most serious crimes," he said. "I felt that my best way around that was to admit that he had committed some crimes, but that his mental illness prevent him from forming the intent. I don't believe he broke into those houses, and I don't believe he tried to murder anyone, so I argued what I believe, and the jury agreed with me."