Kidnapping Suspect Dies in Gunfight With Deputies

An early morning gunfight between sheriff’s deputies and a kidnapping suspect Saturday left the 30-year-old suspect dead and one deputy injured.

Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department officials were unsure whether deputies killed the man, whose name was not released, or if he took his own life after abducting his ex-girlfriend at gunpoint, said Sheriff’s Sgt. Vincent Callier.

The 33-year-old Agua Dulce woman was not harmed, Callier said.

The injured deputy, whose name was withheld, was shot once in his bulletproof vest, just below his heart. He sustained minor bruises, lost a small amount of blood and was recovering at home, Callier said.

“It was a dangerous situation because there’s very little cover here,” said Callier, motioning to the treeless desert hillside where the suspect’s body still lay several hours after his death.

The ordeal began shortly after 3:30 a.m., when sheriff’s deputies were summoned to the woman’s home with a call of a burglary in progress. At the home, however, they learned that the woman had been abducted by her ex-boyfriend, who had recently been released from prison on parole, Callier said. Sheriff’s deputies waited for the man near his Acton home on Buffalo Ridge Road, a narrow dirt road that winds through the hills north of the Sierra Highway.

About 8 a.m., the suspect arrived with the woman in his 1973 Chevrolet Blazer, but he refused to stop for deputies, officials said. The deputies pursued him for half a mile before the man drove off the dirt road and onto the grassy hillside.

He soon stopped the truck, climbed out and began firing at the deputies, who returned fire.

After firing several rounds, the suspect ran behind a 6-foot-high thatch of brush, Callier said.

As the man ran into the brush, deputies sprinted forward and escorted the ex-girlfriend from the truck.

“The deputies took a great risk running to save the woman, but they thought it might be their only chance to get to her,” Callier said.

About 20 minutes later, a police dog was sent to search for the man. He was dead, deputies discovered, apparently of a gunshot wound.

Residents watched through binoculars from the doorways of nearby mobile homes as deputies sealed off the top section of the hill, searching for shell casings and other evidence of the shootout.

“This is a real quiet place,” said resident Mary Sue Elliot, sitting astride her horse after a day of riding. “In fact, I don’t even have my house locked up. It’s scary to think it happened here.”