Old Town Temecula’s most jarring clash in years – a shooting last week that left one man dead, another wounded and an off-duty Costa Mesa police officer under investigation – has rattled the city’s historic business district.

Unlike the drawn-out skits performed by pretend gunfighters, the crackle of gunfire that followed Temecula’s annual spring car show was sudden and deadly.

Yet its aftermath stretched several days, as Old Town merchants continued to dissect the incident while grieving family members criticized the officer’s actions and participated in a widely attended vigil at the shooting scene.

"It will affect all of Old Town," Dennis Frank, a longtime Temecula business and community leader, said Tuesday as he ate lunch at the restaurant where the deadly confrontation began. "It will take quite a while to recover from it."

Frank had attended the spring Rod Run event days earlier, saying streets were jammed and that restaurants and others that feature outdoor drinking patios were crowded with customers escaping the afternoon sun.

Frank said he sympathizes with the restaurant’s owners, who not long ago purchased the place from longtime owners and recently completed renovations and obtained permits to serve alcohol in the covered outdoor patio.

"In a way, it’s a no-win situation," he said.

The shooting has drawn widespread media coverage and resident interest.

More than 180 readers, including friends or acquaintances of the man killed, posted anonymous comments on a newspaper Internet site within days of the shooting.

The commentators have questioned the actions of the combatants, speculated whether any had consumed too much alcohol and wondered if enough city police were in Old Town after the popular vintage car show ended.

Some commentators have questioned whether the off-duty officer acted in self-defense or was too quick to use deadly force.

The Saturday night, March 8, confrontation between a group of restaurant patrons and the off-duty officer, a 10-year veteran of the Orange County agency, began in an outdoor seating area of the Bank of Mexican Food, a two-story historic building at Main and Old Town Front streets, according to a Temecula police press release.

The 7:20 p.m. confrontation spilled across the street where, according to Temecula police and onlookers, five shots were fired, killing 30-year-old Shaun Adam Vilan and wounding his friend, Taylor Willis, 22, both of Temecula.

Willis and the Costa Mesa officer were both transported to Inland Valley Regional Medical Center in Wildomar for treatment of their injuries.

Willis, who reportedly suffered two gunshot wounds, was admitted to the hospital.

The officer, who has not been identified, was treated and released after suffering head injuries that required six staples to close, according to a report in the Orange County Register.

The shooting scene has become a makeshift memorial as dozens of candles and flower bouquets have been left there.

A vigil held there Tuesday night attracted more than 200 people and included remarks by family members.

Some of the speakers praised Vilan’s conduct and downplayed his past, which includes assaults committed about a decade ago that ended with felony convictions for him and three other defendants.

Some friends and family members said a man touched the rear of one of the women in Vilan’s group while they were gathered on the restaurant patio.

The man, later identified as an off-duty police officer, apologized when confronted by Vilan, friends and relatives said, and explained that he had mistaken the woman for his sister.

They said the man, part of another group, later waited for them outside the restaurant with a pair of companions at his side.

Manny Wilson, a friend of Vilan who was present during the incident, said the dispute quickly turned deadly.

"It was chaos. There were people running everywhere screaming and crying," Wilson said in a later interview.

He said he pulled Vilan’s 7-year-old son, Dillan, to safety and that he and Vilan’s brother were questioned by police after the shooting and released.

Wilson showed a reporter his hands and face, which did not feature any visible cuts or bruises, to indicate he had not been fighting.

State law allows police and other law officers to carry concealed weapons while off duty.

A Temecula police news release stated that the off-duty officer had "shot the two suspects…"

It did not indicate that any other weapons had been found by investigators.

Police say the preliminary investigation indicates Vilan and others attacked the off-duty officer from behind and he Advertisement

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"There was a fight. That’s concrete," said Detective Jerry Franchville, a spokesman for Temecula police. "Witnesses heard the officer identify himself as an off-duty cop."

No charges have been filed against the officer, who also faces an internal investigation by his own police department.

The shooting and the unfolding investigation will be etched in Old Town’s contemporary annals, but the boxy, two-story yellow building has long been a stop on historical walking tours of the quaint commercial district wedged between Interstate 15 and Murrieta Creek.

The building was the scene of a noted bank robbery in August 1930 in which Michael "Jerry" Diaz quickly fled town with about $2,000. He was pursued and captured after a hail of gunfire.

A section of tables is placed in the bank’s original vault. Lettering above the entrance states: "First National Bank."

The restaurant anchors Old Town’s busiest intersection. In the same block is the city’s $11 million community theater, which opened behind a refurbished historical building in October 2005.

Christy Puma, who owns and runs the restaurant with her husband, was guarded in her remarks on Tuesday as to how the confrontation began and subsequently escalated.

She said her husband, Craig, was seeking legal advice on what to say and how to proceed following the shooting.

"There’s a lot of questions," she said.

"It was very scary. I can tell you that," she said, recalling how she dropped to the ground and a child was shuttled into the restaurant’s indoor storage room after the gunfire erupted across the street.

She hoped the shooting would not taint the Rod Run.

She said she spotted undercover officers on patrol during the vintage car show and that police arrived quickly, within five minutes, after the shooting occurred.

Some nearby merchants said the streets had thinned of event visitors by the time the shooting occurred, and most stores in the area had closed or were closing.

They said motorcycle police continued to patrol Old Town streets after the car show formally ended at 4:30 p.m.

The annual car show is sponsored by a local nonprofit group formed mostly of vintage car and truck owners and enthusiasts.

As in past years, Temecula paid the law enforcement costs of the event, which was expected to attract 55,000 to 60,000 people.

In a February agreement with the event sponsors, Temecula set aside $33,467 to underwrite police, public works, fire protection and other municipal costs, according to city documents.

Of that amount, $16,517 was earmarked for event police patrols and operations, records show.

Temecula provided $31,602 for the 2006 spring car show, according to city records. That amount included $15,582 for police services, city records state.

Although marred by a street brawl in 1997, the popular event has annually drawn baby boomers and vintage car enthusiasts from a broad swath of inland and coastal communities.

Local bands perform at intersections and food booths and other vendors liven the atmosphere.

Vilan’s mother said she and other family members have often enjoyed the event.

"We do it every year," Karen Crowley said in a Monday interview.

She questions whether the city had enough security on duty as event patrons began to splinter in Old Town while traffic cleared.

She compared the Old Town shooting to a pair of earlier confrontations that netted her son an eight-year state prison sentence.

In those other instances, she said, her son also suffered harsh fallout from a fight he did not start.

Riverside County court records show that Vilan smashed beer bottles in the faces of other men during separate confrontations in 1996 and 1998.

He was hit by a wrench in one of the fights, which spawned a damages lawsuit that was eventually dismissed.

Vilan was sentenced to eight years in state prison in March 2000 following a jury trial.

Aspects of the dispute were appealed to the state Court of Appeal and later to the California Supreme Court, which refused to hear the case in January 2002, according to state records.

County records say Vilan was five feet, eight inches tall and weighed 165 pounds.

Crowley said her son, who worked as a stock options trader, had turned his prison term into a positive experience.

He earned a bachelor’s degree in marketing while he was imprisoned and was about a year away from receiving a master’s degree in the same subject when he was killed, she said.