Slain Bat Wielder on County Staff : Crime: Walter Andrew Welch, a former deputy county counsel, was killed by police while on a rampage smashing car windows in Mission Beach.

A San Diego man killed by police Wednesday while smashing car windows with a baseball bat had worked on the county’s legal staff until May of last year, according to county records.

Walter Andrew Welch, 41, was gunned down by a San Diego police officer Wednesday morning in Mission Beach after he reportedly confronted the officer and his partner with a wooden baseball bat and a pair of scissors during a rampage through the beachfront neighborhood.

Welch, who lived in the 800 block of Ormond Court, worked as a deputy county counsel from July 1988 until May 1989, said Lynn Bride, deputy director of human resources for the county.

The counsel’s office handles civil litigation for San Diego County government.

Administrators in the counsel’s office refused to discuss Welch, even to confirm or deny that he worked there.

“We’re not going to comment on Mr. Welch,” said Barbara Zell, the counsel’s chief of administrative services.

But Peter W. Singer, a private attorney, remembered opposing Welch in a case heard in San Diego County Superior Court in December 1988.

“His job was to commit this mentally ill person to a state hospital,” Singer said. “Mr. Welch beat me at the trial, and my client was sent to the state hospital.

“I didn’t like him--I didn’t like him at all,” Singer said. “He was a tough opponent and a tough person to deal with. He just came off as being really weird--kind of paranoid.”

Singer said that, at one point in the trial, Welch complained because the judge in the case, G. Dennis Adams, had been pointing his finger at Welch.

Adams said he could not remember Welch or the case to which Singer was referring.

But Jim McGoldrick, the associate dean of Pepperdine University Law School, said he had also seen Welch exhibit strange behavior in recent years.

McGoldrick said Welch had graduated from Pepperdine’s law program in 1980, but Welch’s mental state had apparently deteriorated since then.

“As a student, Walter was really fine,” McGoldrick said. “He was a middle-of-the-class kind of student.”

Welch worked as a resident assistant for Pepperdine’s off-campus housing program, McGoldrick said.

But, two years ago, McGoldrick had an unsettling conversation with Welch.

“He called me at home,” McGoldrick said. “He wanted to know if he had Alzheimer’s disease, if he had AIDS, if he had Down’s syndrome. He was under the impression that he had all sorts of diseases.

“It was obvious that Wally had some serious psychological and emotional problems,” McGoldrick said.

But, after his last meeting with Welch about three months ago, McGoldrick said he thought Welch was getting help for some of those problems.

“When I saw him about three months ago, he looked well and said he was fine,” McGoldrick said. “He did say that he was under a doctor’s care.”

Welch was the second bat-wielding man to be shot to death by a San Diego police officer in the past week.

Last Saturday, a police officer killed Luis Frank Perez, 28, after being summoned to resolve a domestic dispute at Perez’s home.

Both of the officers involved in those shootings were reassigned to administrative duties until police complete internal investigations.

Wednesday’s shooting represents at least the 18th time that a law enforcement officer in San Diego County has shot a civilian this year.