Police in Los Angeles needed an hourslong siege to arrest the man accused of gunning down a sheriff’s deputy outside a police station over the weekend.
Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna said Kevin Salazar, 29, was taken into custody after the lengthy barricade and charged in Saturday’s deadly shooting of Deputy Ryan Clinkunbroomer.
Sheriff Luna said SWAT team members served a warrant at the suspect’s Palmdale home early Monday and were able to get Mr. Salazar’s family members to leave peacefully.
Negotiators tried to persuade the suspect to surrender, according to the sheriff, but officers eventually used a “chemical agent” to clear the home and arrest him.
Police said they recovered numerous firearms once inside. The vehicle of interest from Saturday’s shooting was also located, prompting Sheriff Luna to say he was “extremely confident” the department had arrested the right person.
The sheriff added that Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascon said this case would be pursued aggressively.
The motive of the shooting is still unknown.
Deputy Clinkunbrromer “was shot and killed. I don’t know why yet, but we intend to find out,” Sheriff Luna said at a press conference. “But at the end of the day he was in a marked black-and-white right here in front of the station. And he was murdered — ambushed by a coward.”
The suspect’s sister told KTLA that Mr. Salazar had suffered from paranoid schizophrenia.
Marle Salazar, the suspect’s mother, also told the Los Angeles Times that she has called authorities in the past to help get her son to take his medication but was told there was nothing officials could do because Mr. Salazar is an adult.
“My son is mentally ill, and if he did something, he wasn’t in his full mental capacity,” Ms. Salazar told The Times. “They’re only saying that he was the one that shot the deputy, but nobody is saying he has a record for needing mental help.”
The family said it wasn’t excusing the suspect’s purported actions and expressed condolences to Deputy Clinkumbroomer’s family.
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Surveillance video from the shooting showed a black car briefly pull up behind the deputy’s cruiser and then up to the driver’s side and pause. The car races off soon after, while the cruiser drifts forward and stops.
The deputy was an eight-year veteran with the sheriff’s department and was working as a field training officer, a position Sheriff Luna said is reserved for the “best of the best.”
Deputy Clinkunbroomer was also a third-generation member of the department — his father and grandfather both worked for the county sheriff.
Sheriff Luna said the slain deputy was recently engaged to be married.
“Think about this: If I had to go to your family and tell them that you were not coming home and you were just murdered. Does it matter what the person was thinking or their condition?” Sheriff Luna said Monday.
• Matt Delaney can be reached at mdelaney@washingtontimes.com.
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