LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Lake County’s district attorney and his staff are continuing their investigation into a fatal shooting involving a sheriff’s deputy that occurred in Nice on Monday.
The man who was killed was not identified by authorities on Monday pending the notification of his family.
District Attorney Don Anderson said the man who died is a suspected gang member who has had previous contact with law enforcement. “We are familiar with him.”
The man had stolen several vehicles and guns, and used a semiautomatic handgun to shoot at area residents before a deputy shot and killed him with an AR-15 rifle, Anderson said.
As for the reasons behind the man’s actions, “We have no whys at all,” Anderson said Monday evening.
The incident began late Monday morning, with sheriff’s deputies responding to the 6000 block of Marin Street on a report of a suspicious male in the area, according to Lt. Corey Paulich of the Lake County Sheriff’s Office.
Paulich said that 15 minutes later the sheriff’s office received a second report of a male brandishing a firearm in the 4000 block of Nice Road.
A short time later, the man confronted a deputy in the area of Burpee Drive and Lakeview Drive, where Paulich said the fatal shooting occurred.
The fact that a deputy was involved in the shooting activated the county’s critical incident protocol. As a result, the District Attorney’s Office joined the Sheriff’s Major Crimes Unit in the investigation, Paulich said.
Anderson said there are still many things that aren’t known about the man’s motivations or activities before the shooting.
The crime scene on Monday was reported to cover a large area, according to a statement made to Lake County News by a deputy at the location.
In the lead up to the confrontation with deputies Anderson said the man was suspected to have been involved in a hit and run, had stolen two vehicles that he crashed as well as a pickup, and stole four firearms.
Anderson said the man went to a home on Burpee Drive, broke into it, stole the keys to a pickup and then drove off in the vehicle.
In that last portion of the incident, the man was reported to have shot at a resident in the area with a .45-caliber semiautomatic handgun, Anderson said.
It was when he was cornered in the area of Burpee and Lakeview that Anderson said the man brandished the handgun at deputies, one of whom shot the man fatally with an AR-15 semiautomatic rifle, Anderson said.
Paulich said the deputy who shot the man was not injured and was placed on paid administrative leave, which is routine in cases in which deputies discharge their firearms.
Late Monday, Anderson said his staffers were removing from storage a patrol SUV that was driven by the late Deputy Rob Rumfelt when he crashed last August in order to make room for the stolen pickup the suspect had been driving, which will be processed for evidence.
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New details released in fatal deputy-involved shooting
- Elizabeth Larson
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