Suspect Killed in Escondido Raid : Man, 43, Had Been Charged With Shooting at CHP Officers

A 43-year-old man who was wanted for allegedly shooting at two California Highway Patrol officers last month, and who six years ago was involved in a shoot-out with Escondido police, was shot and killed by sheriff’s deputies Monday.

Wesley R. Smiley had been under surveillance by Escondido police, who asked the Sheriff Department’s special enforcement detail to arrest him.

Smiley was shot in the head and the chest by deputies who went to the open front door of the house under surveillance, only to discover Smiley waiting for them with a gun in his hand, Sheriff’s Lt. John Tenwolde said. Smiley was pronounced dead at Palomar Memorial Hospital minutes later.

Tenwolde said he did not know whether Smiley had fired his weapon, nor how many of the six deputies who approached the front door had fired their guns.

Escondido police spokesman Lt. Mike Stein noted that Smiley was well known to police and it was because of his propensity for violence that the specially trained sheriff’s unit made the arrest.

In 1976, Smiley, angry that a friend had been given a traffic citation, walked into the Escondido police station with a loaded .38-caliber revolver and three boxes of ammunition. A reserve officer noticed the gun and, as Smiley was leaving the station, he was ordered to stop. Smiley turned and shot at two police officers, hitting one of them in the hand.

The two officers fired back, hitting Smiley six times in the arm, leg and stomach. He recovered from the injuries, was convicted of assault with a deadly weapon and sentenced to the California Correctional Institution at Tehachapi, from which he was released in October, 1982.

He then sued the police officers for punitive damages in a personal injury lawsuit and, in an out-of-court settlement that outraged many Escondido officials, was given $12,000 in May, 1983, by the insurance companies representing the two officers.

More recently, Smiley was charged with shooting at two CHP officers who pulled him over in an otherwise routine traffic stop the night of Dec. 23 on California 247, north of the town of Yucca Valley in San Bernardino County.

Smiley pulled a gun on one of the officers and sped off, said CHP Sgt. William Miller. He led the officers on an off-road chase across the desert until his car became stuck on rocks.

It was a San Bernardino Sheriff’s Department arrest warrant for that incident that led to Monday’s confrontation in Escondido.