A lawyer for the Los Angeles Police Department officer who discharged a gun while in a scuffle with teenagers in Anaheim earlier this week said Friday that his client feared for his and his sick father’s safety during the incident and still does because of the subsequent protests.

Video that quickly went viral shows the off-duty officer detaining a 13-year-old boy and then, with other teenagers trying to free the youth, firing his weapon that had been tucked into the waistband of his pants.

The downward shot did not strike anyone but the footage made national news, angering many while some supported the officer.

Larry Hanna, a Van Nuys-based attorney, said his client reacted as he was trained to do.

“You have an officer who got hit in the face so hard that he’s bleeding and almost passes out, getting tackled from the side, having about 17 to 20 kids coming at him … that’s bad,” Hanna said. “He was in fear for his life.”

Hanna said the officer, who had a cut to his face, also believed during the Tuesday confrontation that the teenage boy might have a weapon.

“The first young man has hands in his pocket and the officer heard him say, ‘I’m going to shoot you. I’m going to shoot you.’”

At least two children who were there have said that the boy actually said, “I am going to sue you.”

Hanna said the officer took the threat seriously and defended himself and his father, who wouldn’t quickly be able to get out of the line of fire. His dad was outside with the officer.

“Thirteen-year-olds, 15-year-olds, people shoot the police,” the attorney said. “It doesn’t matter what your age is.”

The confrontation, police have said, was apparently ignited by an on-going problem of children walking across the officer’s property.

“What the officer would have liked to have done was to actually have taken cover, gotten out of the way and not been in the line of the fire of this young kid, but his father was behind him,” the lawyer said. “His father has an autoimmune muscular disease.

“He has two crutches and has a hard time walking,” Hanna. “The officer could get out of the way but his dad couldn’t and that’s what the problem was.”

Protestors have broken windows at the officer’s house, and vandalized a car on his property.

“The whole family… they’re scared,” Hanna said.

Anaheim police arrested the boy but not the officer, enraging many and prompting a destructive protest on the street of the officer’s home the next night, when 23 were arrested, including minors. They face such misdemeanor charges as failure to disperse, resisting arrest, and battery on a peace officer, Sgt. Daron Wyatt said.

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The officer, whose name hasn’t been released, has worked with LAPD for just under five years. He was questioned by police and has been cooperative. The boy, and a 15-year-old boy also arrested, were released to their parents. Any of them could still be charged, Anaheim police said.

Hanna said his client has a good record as a police officer. The Los Angeles Police Protective League, the union representing the force’s rank and file, supported the officer.

“There is no question … that when a police officer is attacked, they have the right to protect themselves, no matter the age of the offender,” the Protective League said in a statement.

Contact the writer: 714-796-7865 or afausto@scng.com