Man Killed in Shootout With Deputies at His Santa Clarita Home

A 37-year-old man who allegedly fired an assault weapon at sheriff’s deputies was shot and killed early Saturday on the quiet cul-de-sac where he grew up, authorities said.

Just after 1:30 a.m., two Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies and a sergeant, responding to a vandalism call in the neighborhood, were confronted by Mark Gault, who was outside his parents’ house on the 29300 block of Snapdragon Place with an SKS assault rifle, said sheriff’s spokesman Deputy Cruz Solis.

When deputies ordered Gault to drop the rifle, he pointed it at them and shot several rounds, Solis said. All three deputies fired back, hitting Gault in the upper torso, Solis said. The wounded man ran inside his parents’ house.

Believing Gault had barricaded himself in, the deputies called for a SWAT team, which arrived shortly before 6 a.m.

When the officers entered the house, they found Gault dead, apparently a result of the deputies’ gunfire, Solis said.

Sheriff’s Deputy Val Rosario said the special weapons team’s entrance four hours after the shooting was not surprising, given the long drive from the team’s East Los Angeles headquarters and the tactical planning involved.

“We don’t just rush in,” he said.

A large stash of weapons, including handguns and other assault weapons, was found in the house.

Sheriff’s spokesmen on Saturday would not identify the officers involved, but Sgt. Bob Killeen said the three have been temporarily assigned to desk duty, in accordance with department policy.

It is unclear if any vandalism actually occurred.

Longtime residents of the Canyon Country neighborhood described Gault as polite when young but a sometimes troubled man who never seemed to completely grow up.

They said his occasional indiscretions--firecracker incidents and loud, late-night beer drinking in his parents’ driveway--didn’t lead them to expect this kind of trouble.

“If somebody told me 10 years ago he was going to end up like this, I’d have told them they were blowing smoke out their ears,” said neighbor Joe Keely. “He’s always been respectful.”

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Another neighbor, Jeffrey Pyne, said he was talking on his cell phone in his yard about 9:30 p.m. Saturday when Gault approached him, distraught and incoherent.

“I couldn’t understand him. He was clearly drunk and talking about family problems . . . [and] he said something about his mom,” Pyne said. “He seemed very nervous, so I told him to walk it off.”

Gault’s mother is terminally ill, neighbors said, and he had been living at the family home, helping his father around the house.

Though many residents said Gault was a thoughtful neighbor, Renee Desjardins, 39, who grew up in the neighborhood and described herself as a longtime friend, said Gault sometimes shut himself in his parents’ house.

“He had a lot of paranoid events where he thought people were watching him,” she said. “He just couldn’t get his life together.”

The incident is an aberration for the generally quiet city. It is the only officer-involved shooting so far this year in the Sheriff’s Santa Clarita division, said Lt. Larry Gump.

The Sheriff’s Department’s homicide bureau is investigating Saturday’s shooting.

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Times staff writer Sue Fox contributed to this story.