Man Wanted in Deputy’s Death Killed in N.Y. Pursuit

A man wanted in the murders of four people--including a Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy who died after a March 29 shootout--was shot to death Monday afternoon when cornered by state troopers on a farm near Plattekill, N.Y., the FBI and New York State Police said.

Cesar Uriel Mazariego-Molina, 26, apparently had fled to the small, upstate community and found work there as a laborer at the Dembroski Orchards apple farm, according to Special Agent Karen Gardner, a spokeswoman for the FBI in Los Angeles.

Gardner said the farmer who had hired Mazariego-Molina later recognized him from a weekend broadcast of the “America’s Most Wanted” television program.

The farmer notified the FBI agent in nearby Kingston on Monday morning, and the agent, accompanied by several New York state troopers and Plattekill police officers, went to the farm about 3 p.m., Gardner said.

The farmer directed the agent and police officers to a small mobile home on the property, she said. Police said that when the officers ordered Mazariego-Molina to surrender, he dashed outside, jumped into his car and tried to run down one of the officers as he drove away.

When the state troopers gave chase, Mazariego-Molina stopped, got out of the car, “turned and crouched in a threatening manner and reached into his waistband,” according to Maj. James D. O’Donnell of the State Police. O’Donnell said the two troopers opened fire, killing the suspect.

The troopers said no weapon was found on or near the body, O’Donnell said.

Gardner said Mazariego-Molina was positively identified through fingerprint records.

“He’s about as dangerous as you could get,” John Coffey, a Los Angeles Police detective who investigated one of the other murders, said Monday when told of the confrontation. “Anybody that ran into him was bound to be in a gun battle.”

The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said a warrant for the arrest of Mazariego-Molina was issued last week after the brief but intense shootout in the Walnut Park area that claimed the life of Deputy Nelson H. Yamamoto, 26, and a 30-year-old suspect, Homero Isidro Ibarra.

According to Sheriff Sherman Block, Yamamoto and two other deputies from the Firestone station had responded to a call that a man with a gun had been threatening a resident in the 2500 block on Cass Place.

Directed to a garage at the rear of a home, the deputies peered through a window and saw a man placing a gun on a counter, the sheriff said.

Although the deputies did not know it, there were four people in the garage at the time, investigators said. One was Ibarra and one was a 17-year-old boy. The other two were Mazariego-Molina--wanted in a Los Angeles murder and in two other killings in his native El Salvador--and his 22-year-old cousin, Juan Manuel Mazariego. Block said that the deputies ordered those inside to walk out with their hands up.

Ibarra came out first with what later turned out to be a realistic replica of a .45-caliber pistol in his hand, the sheriff said. Block said Ibarra was ordered to drop the weapon and face the garage as Mazariego-Molina opened fire from the garage.

Four of the gunshots struck Yamamoto, mortally wounding him.

The deputies then opened fire and Ibarra was fatally wounded, Block said. “The shots (that hit him) probably came from the deputies,” Block said.

In the ensuing confusion, the cousins managed to escape. Mazariego was arrested Thursday in Gardena after officers staked out the homes of relatives, sources close to the investigation said.

Ibarra’s relatives say he was an innocent victim who was unarmed and was complying with deputies’ orders when he was shot to death. But Block says Ibarra walked out of the garage carrying the replica, and it was Ibarra who had prompted the call about a man threatening a resident with a gun.

Funeral services for Yamamoto are scheduled for today in Rolling Hills Estates.