Deputy Critical After Being Shot at Traffic Stop

A Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy, attempting to make an early morning traffic stop near Whittier, was shot in the head and critically injured Tuesday while sitting in the driver’s seat of his patrol car, authorities said.

Deputy Michael Schaap, 35, and his partner were pulling over a van for a traffic violation at 3:18 a.m. when someone inside opened fire, said Sheriff’s Sgt. Vanette Ford. The deputies’ car had not even reached a stop when a bullet pierced its windshield and another punctured a tire.

Schaap, a nine-year veteran, was hit by a single shot in the head. His partner, David Timberlake, 31, was not injured and apparently never saw the assailants, officials said.

“All they saw were the rounds coming from the van,” Ford said.

It was not clear whether the deputies had a chance to return fire, said Ford.

Sheriff’s officials said they had identified no suspects and had no description of possible assailants. They said a type of assault weapon was used.

After the shooting--which occurred on Gunn Avenue just north of Mulberry Drive, in an unincorporated area between Whittier and La Mirada--the van sped away. It was found about a mile away, on Valley View Avenue.

The rapid-fire shots awoke many residents in the area. One resident later told a television station he heard Schaap’s partner shouting: “Talk to me! Don’t die on me. . . ! Don’t die on me! Wake up!”

Schaap was taken to St. Francis Medical Center in Lynwood, where he underwent surgery. He was in critical but improving condition Tuesday night, officials said.

Scores of deputies, meanwhile, fanned out across the area searching for suspects in nine blocks around the abandoned van. Three local schools were closed for the first day of classes because of the search.

About 9 a.m., officers converged on the Best Whittier Inn, about a mile north of the van, and closed a stretch of Whittier Boulevard in front of the motel.

Special weapons agents arrived and positioned themselves around the building with automatic rifles. They conducted a room-to-room search and took several people into custody for unstated reasons but released them later.

“We are checking every possible lead,” Ford said. “We got information at that location that we needed to check. We’re still looking for suspects, and we still consider them armed and dangerous.”

Throughout the day, investigators pored over dozens of bullet fragments and shell casings spread over about a 50-yard area on Gunn Street, next to Mulberry Elementary School. Schaap’s cruiser sat in the middle of the street.

A few parents strolled up with children in the morning, only to learn that school was canceled. “We are very nervous because of what happened here,” said one woman in Spanish.

Some neighbors gathered at the crime tape and described what they heard before dawn. Cruz Leija, 45, was sleeping at his home about a quarter-mile away when a loud boom, “like an M-80” firecracker, woke him, followed by a “ta-ta-ta” rattle of semiautomatic gunfire.

“It sounded like it was right in my yard,” he said. “I was like, what the hell? Everyone in the house got up.”

Hilda Violeta Gonzales, 71, also said the rapid-fire shooting woke her up. “Then I heard the voice of a man screaming,” she said. Gonzales, who speaks Spanish, said she could not understand what the man was shouting.

Other officers arrived in minutes, she said, and helicopters soon hovered overhead.

Gerald Hudson, 77, added that it sounded like “as fast as they could pull the trigger, they were pulling that trigger.”