Heroic Deputy Who Saved Hostage From Gunman Dies as Truck Hits Patrol Car

A San Diego County sheriff’s deputy, whom hospital workers described as “a hero” for saving the life of a doctor held hostage last summer, was killed Wednesday when the patrol car he was driving was hit head-on by a truck in Fallbrook.

Deputy Theodore Leroy Beckmann Jr., 35, was pronounced dead at the scene. The accident occurred about 1:30 p.m. on a narrow, two-lane stretch of South Mission Road, about three-quarters of a mile north of Bonsall.

Deputy James Richard Rhem Jr., 34, a passenger in the car, was flown by Life Flight helicopter to Palomar Hospital where he was in stable condition Wednesday night. Rhem was treated for a lacerated right ear, numbness in the right side of his head and an injury to his left hand.

Road ‘Very Dangerous’

The driver of the 1-ton flatbed truck was identified as Jose Villarreal, 42, of Fallbrook. California Highway Patrol investigators said Villareal told them he “felt something funny” in his steering before the truck veered into the patrol car. He was held on suspicion of vehicular manslaughter and was in stable condition at Palomar Hospital Wednesday night with a lacerated right ear.

Laura Myers, a homemaker who lives with her husband on an acre near the site of the accident, described South Mission Road as “very dangerous and getting more so.” She said a fatal accident occurred in front of her house in 1977, when a motorist trying to pass hit a car head-on and killed a boy. Myers said her complaints to authorities about the road’s hazardous condition have “fallen on deaf ears.”

She said most of the accidents are caused by drivers trying to pass illegally.

“A big share of the road has a double yellow line, which they all ignore,” she added. “The speed limit is 55, but no one adheres to that either. We all knew somebody else would get killed, and now it’s happened. It’s too bad it had to be one of the best deputies the sheriff’s had.”

Myers said the truck was loaded with 55-pound bags of fertilizer, which spilled over the road. Myers said investigators told her and her neighbors that the deputies were driving south out of Fallbrook when they were hit by the truck, which was heading north.

Veered Into Other Lane

The accident occurred near the intersection of South Mission and La Canada, which is heavily congested on weekdays with drivers leaving Camp Pendleton. South Mission remained closed late Wednesday, and motorists were being routed onto nearby roads.

“The man . . . behind the pickup truck said he couldn’t understand why, all of a sudden, the driver veered over into the other lane of traffic--that’s what killed the deputies,” Myers said. “It took the whole side of the deputies’ car off. I mean, tore it right off. It had to have killed the driver instantly.”

Last summer, Beckmann received a medal for lifesaving when he was summoned to Fallbrook Hospital to apprehend an armed narcotics addict who had entered the emergency room demanding morphine. The suspect had taken Dr. Tania Homonchuk hostage and had a gun pointed at her head.

“Officer Beckmann came in and confronted and then disarmed the suspect,” said Nancy Chamberlain, an emergency-room nurse on duty at the time. “He and the suspect had a showdown with their pistols. He got the suspect to surrender.”

Chamberlain said she and Reggie Grondin, an X-ray technician, eluded the gunman but Homonchuk couldn’t get away. Homonchuk was on a skiing trip Wednesday and unavailable for comment.

Chamberlain said of Beckmann, “He was our hero--clearly, our hero. We really appreciate that he was able to defuse the situation without anyone being injured.”

Chamberlain said that the suspect held a gun to Grondin’s head and that both struggled with the gun before Grondin escaped.

“He confronted several other people, too,” Chamberlain said. “I can’t tell you how scary it was until the deputy showed up.”

“Loss to Community”

Grondin had crossed paths with Beckmann earlier. He said that, several months before the incident at the hospital, his wife’s car broke down, stranding her and their two small children on a highway. He said that Beckmann gave them a ride home.

“We all felt very strongly about the incident in the ER (emergency room),” Grondin said. “He not only disarmed the guy, he wrestled him to the ground, handcuffed and arrested him and then saw to it that everyone else was OK--not just physically but psychologically. His death is a huge loss to the community.”

Sheriff’s spokesman Bob Takeshta said that Beckmann joined the force in March, 1980, and that past assignments included the Vista jail, Vista patrol and street narcotics detail. Beckmann was born in San Francisco but grew up in Amarillo, Tex., and Vista. He was the father of two small children from a previous marriage, Takeshta said. He was not married at the time of his death.

Takeshta said Beckmann had also received a medal in 1983 for narcotics investigations in Vista.