Accidental Shot by Deputy Kills Fellow Officer

A San Diego County sheriff’s deputy was accidentally shot and killed Wednesday by a fellow deputy after they responded to the scene of a residential armed robbery in Encinitas.

A sheriff’s spokesman identified the dead officer as Michael Stanewich, 36, a nine-year veteran who worked as an undercover narcotics detective. The deputy who fired the fatal shot was identified as Gary Steadman, a patrol officer who worked out of the same station as Stanewich. His age was not available.

Deputies were called to a house Wednesday morning in the Encinitas neighborhood of Olivehain, where a neighbor had called to say an armed robbery was taking place.

Officials at the shooting scene said Steadman may have mistaken Stanewich for a robber when he fired two shots. It was unclear late Wednesday whether any robbers were in fact at the home.

“It has not been a very happy day around here,” said Dan Greenblat, a spokesman for Sheriff Jim Roache.

Stanewich was honored in late 1989 by the Encinitas City Council as one of five deputies who had provided outstanding service to the community. In 1987, he shot and wounded a man in Solana Beach after the man came toward him with a gun. He later was cleared in the shooting by the district attorney’s office.