Search Continues for Suspect in Deputy’s Slaying

The man believed to have fatally shot Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Deputy Nelson Yamamoto remained at large Friday, a day after another suspect in the case was arrested in Gardena.

Sheriff’s homicide investigators refused to reveal details of the arrest of Juan Manuel Mazariego, 22, other than to say he was taken into custody near Berendo and Rosecrans avenues about 6:20 p.m. Thursday and was being held without bail after being booked on suspicion of murder.

His cousin, Cesar Uriel Mazariego-Molina, 26, is still at large. He is accused of shooting Yamamoto during a gun battle with sheriff’s deputies Sunday night behind a garage in the unincorporated Walnut Park area, near South Gate.

Mazariego-Molina also is a suspect in three other murders.

Deputies say Sunday night’s gun battle erupted when Mazariego-Molina opened fire after Yamamoto and two other deputies responded to a complaint that a man with a gun was threatening a resident in the 2500 block of Cass Place.

Sheriff’s homicide investigators said the man who was reported as having a gun, which turned out to be a realistic replica of a .45-caliber pistol, was Homero Isidoro Ibarra, 30, who died in the shootout. The deputies said Mazariego-Molina and Mazariego escaped in the confusion after the shootout.

Sheriff Sherman Block said Ibarra died when he was caught in the cross-fire after refusing to drop his weapon. Ibarra’s family says he was unarmed and was complying with deputies’ demands to raise his hands over his head when he was shot.

Funeral services for Yamamoto are set for Tuesday in Rolling Hills Estates.