Man Reportedly Confesses to Killing Deputy

An out-of-work Lake Forest factory worker confessed to investigators that he shot and killed an Orange County sheriff’s deputy outside a convenience store early Saturday, law enforcement sources said Sunday.

Maurice Gerald Steskal, 39, was arrested less than six hours after the shooting as he drove away from his apartment just blocks from where a gunman riddled the deputy’s patrol car with an assault weapon.

In Steskal’s 1987 Plymouth Horizon, deputies discovered a rifle similar to an AK-47 that investigators believe was used to kill Deputy Brad Riches, said Assistant Sheriff George Jaramillo on Sunday. Steskal remains in county jail on suicide watch, according to his family.

Although the motives for the killing remained unclear, investigators are looking at Steskal’s arrest a few weeks ago on suspicion of resisting arrest as a possible reason.

“The arrest there . . . may have been a precursor to this; it may have been the continuation of a long-term hatred” of police, said Jaramillo.

That arrest took place March 26, when Deputy Andre Spencer stopped Steskal for not wearing a seat belt.

Spencer said Sunday that it was obvious early on that this was not going to be a routine traffic stop.

“He started hitting the steering wheel” as he was pulling over, Spencer said. “I could see he was upset.”

After Steskal parked, he leaped out of the car and walked toward the deputy, screaming abuse at him. Spencer drew his gun and called for backup. When other deputies arrived, they searched Steskal and found a small bag of marijuana, less than an ounce, they said. As they searched him, Steskal broke free and deputies had to restrain him.

Steskal told his roommate, Cherie Brockway, that he was furious over the stop and that he had been strip-searched, a claim that deputies deny.

Spencer identified Steskal as a suspect after reviewing a store surveillance tape made moments before the killing.

A tape recorded at the 7-Eleven store moments before the killing showed a man, whom deputies say was Steskal, stroll in carrying a rifle in his left hand.

Deputies said he bought a pack of cigarettes and told the terrified clerk that he intended not to rob the store but to use the weapon against “the pigs.” The gunfire began almost as soon as he left.

Riches had arrived at the store while on routine patrol. His department-issued bulletproof vest did little to stop the onslaught. The gunman fired 31 rounds, and the bullets almost severed his arm.

“Deputy Riches was at the wrong place at the wrong time,” said Spencer. “He didn’t have a chance at all. He was outgunned.”

Riches is the first deputy killed while on patrol since 1958.