Deputy Staging Holdup Slain by Fellow Deputy : Crime: San Diego County detective is killed as he attempts to steal money that he discovered during drug search last week, the sheriff says.

An off-duty San Diego County deputy sheriff found robbing an Encinitas home and beating its owner was shot and killed Wednesday by a fellow deputy who did not recognize the robber as his colleague and close friend until he removed a stocking from his friend’s head.

Sheriff’s officials said Deputy Michael Stanewich, 36, an undercover narcotics detective and nine-year veteran, was fatally shot by patrol Deputy Gary Steadman, 35, an 11-year-veteran, who responded with another deputy to a report that a residence was being robbed. Both men worked out of the same sheriff’s station in Encinitas.

Stanewich had been to the home, owned by Donald Van Ort, 32, last week to search for narcotics and noticed a large amount of cash that he did not seize, officials said.

On Wednesday, officials said, Stanewich returned to the wood-framed stucco home with an unidentified accomplice to steal the money, estimated to be about $100,000 in cash. The deputy wore rubber gloves and a stocking over his head.

The accomplice fled as Stanewich forced his way into the house at gunpoint. His identity is unknown, although officials described him a “slightly built, dark complected male” and are actively searching for him. Authorities said they have no reason to believe he is a deputy.

Stanewich tied up Van Ort and his 82-year-old grandmother, Helen Van Ort, who also lived at the residence. While the grandmother was tied, gagged and thrown onto a couch, Stanewich handcuffed Van Ort to a chair, placed a pillowcase over his head, beat him, poured lighter fluid on him and threatened to set him afire, authorities said.

Van Ort’s girlfriend, Carla Jo Sawcliffe, escaped from the house while the beating was taking place and telephoned authorities from a neighbor’s house.

Steadman arrived at Van Ort’s home in the 200 block of Cole Ranch Road in Olivenhain, a neighborhood in Encinitas, at about 10:40 a.m.

Steadman entered the house and saw Stanewich in the kitchen beating and threatening to kill Van Ort, who was hogtied on the floor.

According to officials, Steadman identified himself as a deputy and told Stanewich to freeze, but Stanewich flailed his arms near a knife that was sitting on a sink. Steadman ordered him to freeze again and Stanewich moved towards him. Officials said he was unarmed. Steadman yelled again and fired three rounds, striking Stanewich twice in the upper body.

Steadman reached down and pulled the mask away, while Stanewich lay dying, and discovered whom he had shot. Stanewich and Steadman were described by Sheriff Jim Roache as close friends who both worked and socialized together often.

Van Ort, bloodied in the beating, told authorities later that he had identified Stanewich as the person who searched his home the week before. Van Ort suffered minor bruises and was not taken to a hospital.

Van Ort had been arrested twice in 1989, once for driving under the influence of alcohol and drugs, and once for assault and battery. He had violated probation, and had been assigned to a residential drug treatment center last November, according to court records.

News of the shooting, and the subsequent revelation of Stanewich’s role in the robbery, rocked the San Diego Sheriff’s Department. By Wednesday night, normally stoic law enforcement officials said they still could not quite believe it.

“Our entire department is repulsed by this double tragedy,” Roache said. “A deputy, one of our own, was apparently committing a terrible felony. Another deputy, who knew the perpetrator through law enforcement activities, doing his duty properly was forced to kill the apparent criminal.”

“It is an understatement to say we are both angered and saddened,” said Roache, who arrived at the scene of the shooting Wednesday morning and then flew by helicopter to console Stanewich’s wife, Kathy.

“We all share the depth of this loss with the family of Mr. Stanewich,” the sheriff said.

Stanewich and his wife have three children: ages 4, 3 and 22 months. He has two other children from a previous marriage.

According to a biography provided by the department, Stanewich served in the Navy for seven years and became a deputy in 1981. He was first assigned to the downtown San Diego Central Jail, where he worked with Roache.

He was assigned to the Encinitas station in 1984 as a patrol deputy and training officer. Between 1987 and last September, he was a traffic deputy. He since had been promoted to detective and worked as an undercover narcotics officer.

In 1989, Stanewich was singled out, along with four other deputies, by the Encinitas City Council for “outstanding service to the community.” In 1987, he shot and injured a man in Solana Beach who was charging at him with a gun.

The last deputy to die was in 1989, when Theodore Beckmann Jr. was killed in an auto accident.

Because of the sordid circumstances surrounding the shooting, no flags will be flown at half staff, no black tape affixed to badges and no uniformed deputies will appear at Stanewich’s funeral, a sheriff’s spokesman, Dan Greenblat, said.

Steadman is undergoing counseling, department officials said, and will be placed on administrative assignment while an investigation proceeds.

Hired by the department in 1979, Steadman was assigned to the Central Jail and promoted to the Encinitas station in 1981. For four years, he worked as a patrolman until being transferred to the transportation division. He went back to patrol in June, 1987.

“It’s been a tumultuous, heart-wrenching, gut-wrenching day,” Roache said Wednesday night. “I’m numb, and the people in this department are numb. It’s going to take a long time for people to absorb and deal with it.”

Times staff writers Barry M. Horstman, John M. Glionna, Michael Granberry and Jonathan Gaw contributed to this story.