WHITTIER, Calif. -- A former Los Angeles police officer pleaded innocent Wednesday to murdering a former University of Southern California women's basketball player.

Angela Marie Shepard of unincorporated Whittier pleaded innocent to one count each of murder, possession of a firearm by a felon with one prior conviction, and possession of ammunition.

Shepard, 37, was jailed in lieu of bail, which Superior Court Commissioner Gerald Mansfield set at $2 million. A preliminary hearing was set for Sept. 20.

Audrey Gomez, 28, of the Canyon Country area of Santa Clarita, was shot twice in the chest Aug. 24. Her body was found the next day in her car, which was abandoned in a Whittier park.

Gomez, basketball's all-time leading scorer at St. John Vianney High School in Holmdel, N.J., played college ball for Nortre Dame and USC.

Shepard, who was arrested Sunday, was Gomez's boss at a residential shelter for troubled youths in Los Angeles. Gomez, the center's day supervisor, had worked there for 13 months.

Shepard had been there since 1998. She was a Los Angeles Police Department patrol officer from 1989 until being fired in December 1995.

Police officials have declined to say why she was dismissed, but prosecutors said she was convicted in September 1995 of making a criminal threat and disobeying a court order. She was sentenced to three years probation.