Tustin police were investigating what prompted an off-duty sheriff’s deputy to fatally shoot a woman at her residence before sunrise Friday.
Police were called at 5:22 a.m. Friday to a home in the 13000 block of Tustin East Drive, where 35-year-old Brittany Shaw sustained gunshot wounds, according to Tustin police and the Orange County Sheriff’s Department.
Police did not release any further details and were exploring every possibility for what prompted the shooting, Tustin Police Department Lt. Sarah Fetterling said.
Shaw was taken to Orange County Global Medical Center, where she was later pronounced dead.
Orange County Sheriff’s Department spokeswoman Carrie Braun said Tustin police notified sheriff’s officials about the shooting involving an off-duty deputy sheriff.
“The involved deputy has been placed on paid administrative leave,” Braun said.
Orange County Supervisor Don Wagner said the woman who was killed worked for the OC Health Care Agency. Her work involved inmates just booked into the jail system, Wagner said.
It appears the deputy and the woman lived together and may have mistook her roommate as an intruder, Wagner said.
Health Care Agency Director Veronica Kelley sent a memo to staff Friday “with great sadness” about the death of Shaw, who worked for six years at the Intake Release Center.
Kelley said Shaw was the correctional health services chief.
“Her loss will be felt deeply by those who knew her throughout all levels of the HCA and the county family,” Kelly wrote in the memo.
County officials were providing mental health services to staff.