Deputy, Drug Suspect Slain in Raid on Palmdale Home : Narcotics: Two children, a woman and an elderly man present during shootout are taken into custody.

A Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy and a drug suspect died and another deputy was injured Monday morning when narcotics investigators raided a suspected amphetamine sales den in Palmdale.

Authorities said the suspect opened fire with a rifle, shooting at deputies through a wall of the mobile home that served as the headquarters of the alleged drug operation.

The deputy, Richard B. Hammack, 31, of Quartz Hill, died after he was taken in a sheriff’s car to Palmdale Hospital Medical Center. A 7 1/2-year veteran who had worked for the last two years in the Antelope Valley, Hammack was not wearing a bulletproof vest when he was hit three times in the the neck, face and upper body, Sheriff Sherman Block said.

A deputy whose name was not released suffered a slight hand injury and was treated at the hospital and released.

Hammack had recently returned to work with the Antelope Valley station’s narcotics squad after spending two days on riot duty in South Los Angeles after the verdicts in the Rodney G. King beating case, Block said.

He was the second deputy fatally shot in the last six weeks. Before those shootings, the department had not lost an officer in hostile action in more than three years.

Deputies were still trying to piece together the sequence of the shooting late Monday and declined to release full details. A woman, two children and an elderly man who were in the mobile home during the shootout were taken into custody for questioning, but their names were not released.

The incident occurred about 9:30 a.m. when at least six deputies from the narcotics team attempted to serve a search warrant at the residence of John White, 37, in the Sagetree Village Mobile Home Park at East Avenue R and 35th Street, deputies said.

The search warrant was issued after neighbors complained and an informant told investigators that the mobile home on Gazelle Drive in the large, walled park was a distribution point for amphetamines.

“It was not considered a high-risk warrant,” Block said of the Monday morning assignment.

Hammack was assigned to walk up to the mobile home and knock on the door. Other deputies hiding nearby were to announce themselves and rush in once the door was opened.

But, officials said, the plan went awry when a woman came out of the house and scuffled with the deputies outside, who wore jackets identifying them as law enforcement authorities and had shouted that they were deputies.

“A struggle ensued with the female, and then shots came through the wall” of the mobile home, Block said. The deputies “were met with a hail of gunfire.”

The deputies returned fire as they rushed inside. Block said there was “a lot” of shooting but did not release the number of rounds fired. Hammack was hit inside the mobile home near the door to a bedroom where White was firing a rifle, authorities said. The other deputy was injured when a flashlight was shot out of his hand, they said.

“Eventually all of the deputies retreated, and they noticed that one deputy was not with them when they came out,” said Deputy Bill Wehner, a department spokesman.

The missing man was Hammack, who Wehner said had not been expected to go inside. Hammack’s gun was found on the floor beside him.

White was found shot to death in the bedroom. The two children and the elderly man, who were elsewhere in the mobile home, were taken into custody along with the woman who scuffled with deputies. The woman was arrested for assault on a police officer, deputies said. They did not specify why the others were being held.

Deputies also refused to say whether any narcotics or drug paraphernalia were found.

Wehner said the department’s preliminary investigation indicates that the bullets that killed Hammack were fired by White’s rifle, but it is unclear which deputy shot White.

Physicians at Palmdale Hospital Medical Center said that the fatal wound appeared to have hit Hammack in the face and damaged the carotid arteries in his neck.

Neighbors said White had lived in the mobile home for about five years with his wife, Dell, five young children and Dell White’s elderly father. One neighbor said White, who went by the name Jack, was a former masonry worker who had studied to be a nurse. Block said White previously had been arrested for burglary and grand theft, but the outcome of those cases could not be immediately determined.

White’s mobile home, with children’s bicycles, toys and a plastic pool out front, had been the source of complaints about noise. Neighbors also said the residence attracted a constant procession of strangers.

“There were people coming in and out of there a lot,” said Brenda Heckathorn, who lives across the street. “When you look at them, you automatically think they are no good.

“We’ve always had our suspicions,” Heckathorn said, but she added that she never saw drugs sold or used at the location.

Hammack was engaged to be married and his fiancee was consoled by Block at the Antelope Valley station after the shooting.

The death was believed to be the first in a hostile situation in the sprawling region that the Sheriff’s Department covers in Palmdale, Lancaster and many nearby desert communities. Three deputies have been killed on duty in car accidents in the area.

“I’ve lost my best friend,” one red-eyed deputy said while standing on a perimeter set up around the shooting area.

The last deputy fatally shot in the line of duty was Nelson Yamamoto, a rookie who died March 31 after he was wounded in a shootout with murder suspects in Walnut Park. Deputy Jack Miller was shot to death in January, 1989. Like Hammack, he was serving a search warrant in a narcotics investigation when he was killed.