Survivalist Sought for Questioning in 3 Ambush Slayings Captured

A gun-toting survivalist who prowled the rugged terrain of Riverside County, evading authorities seeking to question him about three ambush killings, was arrested Saturday as he hid in the undergrowth of a flood-control channel near Lake Perris Dam.

Danny Figueroa, 26, was still dressed in the military-green fatigues that various residents had spotted him wearing since law enforcement officers first began searching for a man fitting his description. He was arrested without incident, and taken to Riverside County Jail, where he was booked on suspicion of murder in the May 13 killing of a Hemet-area man who was shot with a rifle while working in his front yard, Sheriff’s Sgt. Jan Duke said. He was also booked on an outstanding burglary warrant, she added.

“It was over in just a matter of a minute or so,” said state park Ranger Jimmie Ritter of the Lake Perris recreational area, who, with his partner, helped track down Figueroa in the wide, brush-lined channel. “He’s scared a lot of people, and I feel we were just doing our job . . . I’m glad Curt (fellow ranger Itogawa) has got such an eagle eye.”

Backwoods Sniper

The hunt for Figueroa began after three apparently random attacks by a backwoods sniper, which frightened residents and alerted area police. Authorities organized exhaustive searches, with dogs and helicopters, of the many abandoned shacks, trailers and caves in the hundreds of square miles of mountainous terrain stretching from Redlands to northern San Diego County.

The searches began after the May 13 shooting of Reynold Johnson, 53, in front of his home in Aguanga, near Hemet. On May 29, Raymond Wallace Webber, 19, of Yucaipa, was shot once in the head while sitting in his pickup truck near San Timoteo Canyon in Redlands, and on June 17, 72-year-old Mary Rose Lengerich was shot in the back with a rifle while walking her dog near San Timoteo Canyon.

Although no murder warrants were issued, authorities wanted Figueroa for questioning because of his life-style and because of frequent reports that a man fitting his description--battle fatigues and black combat boots--had been seen in the area taking random rifle shots.

Many residents, who had moved out to the pastoral hillsides of Riverside County to escape urban crime, had curtailed their outdoor activities in the wake of the three killings.

‘What a Relief’

The news of an arrest in the perplexing case prompted one Redlands resident, Nancy Hatfield, 54, co-owner of the Happy Ours Ranch, to say: “What a relief. We can go on living our own natural lives.”

Hatfield, who had stopped riding “way, way back in the hills like I used to” in the wake of the shootings, said a lot of her horse boarders “were getting kind of paranoid. Some of them were even afraid to come driving out here.”

Figueroa has a record “going back to the mid-1970s,” both as a juvenile and an adult, according to Riverside County Sheriff’s Detective Tom Arnold, who investigated the Johnson murder. A man who matched descriptions of Figueroa was spotted carrying a long gun about 9:50 Saturday morning by a local farmer who was working in the potato and alfalfa fields near Lake Perris Dam in Moreno Valley, Duke said.

Sheriff’s deputies called Moreno Valley police, the San Bernardino sheriff’s helicopter, and state park rangers for assistance. “We began a search of the perimeter of the park, as well as the trail entrances to the park,” said Ranger Paul Pettit.

Spotted by Ranger

Rangers Ritter and Itogawa began searching west of the Lake Perris entrance. “We had pulled up to check under a bridge on a flood-control channel,” Ritter said. “I was getting out to look under the bridge and ranger Itogawa spotted him probably 500 yards up the control channel. It was a good distance.

“We took off driving the road that parallels the channel. I was looking out the window and spotted him for sure the second time.” As the car speeded up, “I saw him running real fast in a low, crouched position.”

They called sheriff’s deputies, and “after a short chase, the subject attempted to hide in the brush growing along the storm drain,” Duke said. He was spotted and held at bay by the San Bernardino sheriff’s helicopter crew.

A long gun was found not far away, said Duke, who would not be more specific. Ritter said: “He had this shotgun, which we found. He had shoved it up under some brush.”

Siege of Fear

The arrest may have ended a siege of fear for locals like Fred and Janet O’Connor, who brought their two children to this area five years ago to “get away from the city and have some peace and quiet.”

But the two sniping incidents not far from their San Timoteo Canyon home--a well-groomed middle-class neighborhood south of downtown Redlands--changed that for a while.

“There’s a man out here hunting people,” O’Connor said earlier this week. “You don’t walk out of the house without looking over your shoulder.”

Since the three ambush murders, locals had taken no chances. Many armed themselves, kept their dogs outside, locked doors and windows and stayed away from back country roads and trails.

Frank Maka, 50, a member of the Redlands Mounted Police, reported seeing a man in March, shooting into the Rancho Caballo horse ranch where he lives. The ranch is in a thick grove of eucalyptus trees about two miles east of where Mrs. Lengerich was killed.

‘Whole Rambo Outfit’

The man “had the whole Rambo outfit--painted face, fatigues, backpack, gun; the whole ball game,” Maka said.

Frightened canyon residents provided investigators with a steady stream of possible sightings of a man they identified from pictures as Figueroa, and have also reported strange incidents that they think involve him. Ranchers have told of a man in fatigues feasting on raw squirrels, jack rabbits and chickens. Bee hives have been missing or turned over, their sweet contents drained. Combat-boot tracks have been found along the canyon’s dry wash.

Figueroa has a record of violent crimes since his 1977 arrest at age 15 for beating and robbing a woman in Los Angeles County, officials said.

Between last December and the first killing in May, he was arrested for several small crimes, including allegedly shooting and killing a steer near Hemet, breaking into cabins and campers to steal food and clothing and carrying a concealed weapon.

In each case, he was either released without charges or failed to show for his court dates, authorities said.

Patt Morrison reported from Los Angeles and Louis Sahagun from Riverside County.