Police Cleared in Slaying of Gunman : Inquiry: No wrongdoing found in shooting of murder suspect who fired 150 rounds at officers.

HUNTINGTON BEACH â€”  Police have been cleared of any wrongdoing in the fatal shooting last February of a man who reportedly shot an acquaintance and then held off police for seven hours at a storage lot, the Orange County Sheriff’s Department reported Wednesday.

Police were called at 10:30 p.m. Feb. 18 about shots being fired in the recreational vehicle lot in the 7000 block of Woodwind Drive, an industrial area near Huntington Central Park.

The gunman barricaded himself in a green camper while firing more than 150 rounds at officers and a helicopter throughout the night, said Lt. Ed McErlain, a spokesman for Huntington Beach police.

At 5:45 a.m., the gunman stuck his upper body out of the camper’s vent to shoot, and officers from the Special Weapons and Tactics team shot back, hitting him several times in the head.

He was identified as Thomas Charles Cayer, 45, a local surfer who was known throughout this beach city for the offbeat camper he drove and lived in.

After the shootout, police found the body of Lynn Emerson Channell, 54, who lived near Cayer in the RV yard, authorities said. Cayer allegedly had shot Channell in the head several times.

Investigators found a 12-gauge shotgun and a .30-caliber M-1 semiautomatic carbine beneath Cayer’s body, Olson has said. Police also found more than 300 rounds of ammunition for the carbine and 25 shotgun shells in the van.

As part of a regional agreement on officer-involved shootings, the Sheriff’s Department was asked to investigate the death with the county district attorney’s office.

The investigation was completed April 1 and sent to the district attorney’s office for review, Sheriff’s Lt. Richard J. Olson said.

A month later, Olson said, the district attorney’s office issued a letter stating that based on reports from the Sheriff’s Department, the crime lab, coroner’s office, Police Department, interviews with police and civilian witnesses, and photographs of the scene, “it is our opinion that there is no evidence of criminal culpability on the part of the officers involved.�