Off-Duty Officer Kills Would-Be Robber

An off-duty sheriff’s deputy shot and killed one of two men who tried to rob him early Sunday, police said.

The unidentified deputy was taking a walk in his neighborhood on Sherman Way in North Hollywood when two men approached him and at gunpoint demanded money. The 29-year-old deputy pulled out his gun and shot one of the men. The other suspect fired as he ran away, police said. The deputy was not injured.

The identity of the 27-year-old dead man was not released pending notification of relatives, according to the Los Angeles County coroner’s office.

The second robbery suspect was identified as Cesar Ceballos, 21, of North Hollywood. He was arrested after trying to blend in with a crowd of young people who gathered at the scene of the shooting, police said. He was arrested on suspicion of murder based on the felony-murder rule, said Los Angeles Police Lt. Anthony Alba.

The felony-murder rule says that a person involved in a felony that results in someone’s death can be charged with murder even if he or she did not commit the killing, Alba said.

Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department officials refused to release the deputy’s name because he was the victim of a crime and not acting in his official capacity at the time of the shooting. Additionally, authorities said they believe the suspects were gang members and fear retaliation because the deputy lives in the area. All they would say is that he is 29 and a three-year veteran assigned to the Mira Loma Jail in north Los Angeles County.

The scene of the shooting was a commercial stretch of Sherman Way between Ethel Avenue and Coldwater Canyon Boulevard. The deputy was walking west on the south side of the street about 3:30 a.m. when the men confronted him, Alba said.

After the shooting, the deputy ran to a nearby residence and called police. Investigators took a group of bystanders to the LAPD North Hollywood station to be interviewed. Among them was Ceballos, and during the interviews investigators determined that he was the other man involved in the attempted robbery, Alba said.

The investigators gathered “sufficient evidence to arrest him on felony murder,” Alba said.

As a sworn peace officer, the deputy is allowed to carry a concealed weapon.

Deputy John McBride, a Sheriff’s Department spokesman, said the deputy would not be reassigned or relieved of his duties, as is typically done after an officer-involved shooting, because the deputy’s work does not require him to carry a gun.

The Sheriff’s Department will conduct its own administrative investigation, said McBride.