Wife Expresses Shock at Officer’s Arrest in Slaying of Corona Man : Crime: Her marriage to Anaheim policeman Minn was over, she says, and her dead lover and the suspect were friends.
RIVERSIDE — An anguished Elian Schonberger said Sunday that her husband, Anaheim police Officer Thomas A. Minn, seemed to accept that she was having a love affair with his neighborhood friend.
Little did she suspect that her husband of six years would ultimately be accused of turning his own .45-caliber service pistol on her lover, Paul R. Hangen, and fatally shooting him in the head.
“I am in complete shock,†Schonberger said during an interview at her Corona home. “I want my Paul back.â€
Minn, 36, was arrested about 19 hours after he allegedly shot 28-year-old Hangen at least twice on Friday night. Hangen’s body was discovered slumped in the cab of his Chevy pickup truck on the 2800 block of 2nd Street in Norco, about a mile away from Minn’s house.
A 14-year veteran of the Anaheim Police Department, Minn shot Hangen with his semiautomatic service weapon, authorities said.
“I know Tom loved me a lot and didn’t want to let go of me, but I didn’t love him,†Schonberger said. “I haven’t loved him for a long time.â€
Riverside County Sheriff’s Investigator Mark Lohman said Sunday that Minn, a motorcycle officer, is being held in lieu of $250,000 bail at the Robert Pressley Detention Center in
Riverside.
Minn awaits arraignment on Monday or Tuesday, authorities said. Anaheim police said he was placed on administrative leave until his case is resolved.
Minn’s parents, who live in Anaheim, said they have not talked to their son since his arrest and refused further comment.
Schonberger recalled Sunday how Minn had introduced her to Hangen about three years ago.
“Paul was my friend and Tom’s friend,†said Schonberger, a grocery checkout clerk at a Garden Grove supermarket. “The three of us always did things together.â€
Hangen, a welder at Foothill Engineering in Corona, even moved in with the couple in February, she said, and the pair allowed Hangen’s parents to stay with them for a few months as well.
But her marriage to Minn became strained, Schonberger said. By late summer, her friendship with Hangen grew into romance, she said. He called her “Sweet Pea,†and she called him “Cowboy Pauly.â€
Although Hangen moved out of the house in October, Schonberger said he kept a door key.
Hangen’s grief-stricken parents, who live within a few blocks of the Schonberger-Minn home in Corona, refused to comment Sunday, although Hangen’s mother did say she believed Schonberger had pursued her son.
Schonberger maintained she and Hangen pursued each other, and Hangen never told his parents about the relationship. While Minn did not like the arrangement, he tolerated it.
“Paul and I went out many times, and Tom accepted this fact--that I was going out and doing this,†she insisted.
She started talking about divorce about a year ago, but Minn didn’t want her to go and would try to dissuade her, she said. The couple took separate rooms in their five-bedroom, two-story home and tensions mounted, Schonberger said.
“He was telling everyone he was going to shoot himself because she wanted a divorce,†said Schonberger’s mother, Ria Zigman, who flew in from Arizona to see her daughter.
Schonberger said her husband told her she “couldn’t make it†if she tried to live on her own, supporting her 13-year-old son from a previous marriage. But she was planning to file for divorce, and had just put a deposit on a nearby apartment.
“Tom wanted to commit suicide,†Schonberger said. “He had left me letters.â€
On Friday night, Schonberger was waiting for Hangen to pick her up to go dancing. He never arrived.
A mile away, Norco resident Rhonda Moore, 38, was watching television in her home on Second Street when she heard two gunshots at about 7 p.m. Moore’s golden retriever, Bo, began barking and whining. When she went outside to look around, she saw a pickup truck with its engine running.
Inside, Moore discovered Hangen’s body slumped in the driver’s seat. She immediately called 911.
The killing stunned residents, who said there is little crime in the neighborhood, which is more likely to have runaway pigs and goats than homicides.
“In this neighborhood, nothing ever happens,†Moore said Sunday. “About the biggest thing that happens is a cow gets loose.â€
Schonberger was packing Sunday, stuffing Minn’s boots and other police gear in boxes. She plans to move to Arizona with her son to live with her mother.
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