Man Found Dead Is Identified

A suspect killed in a weekend gunfight that left a Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy dead was identified Sunday as a 21-year-old Irvine man as authorities continued their investigation and awaited autopsy results in the case.

The body of Alberto Reyes was found in an Artesia house Saturday evening, more than nine hours after deputies first stormed the home and Deputy David Powell, an 18-year department veteran, was fatally shot, a Sheriff’s Department spokesman said.

The episode began shortly before 11 a.m. Saturday when sheriff’s deputies received a report of gunfire a few blocks away in neighboring Norwalk. A sheriff’s helicopter spotted two men running from that location and saw one of them enter a house at the rear of a lot in the 12000 block of 167th Street in Artesia.

When sheriff’s patrols arrived at that address, Deputy David Cervantes, a department spokesman, said, the occupant of a house in the front told them his sister was in the home to the rear and was afraid to leave.

Believing that a hostage situation was unfolding, Cervantes said, three or four deputies surrounded the house. They saw the suspect peering through a window in the front door and then kicked the door in.

“A female ran out the front door and shots came from the house, three to four rounds, one of them striking Powell,” Cervantes said.

Powell fell back and another deputy, who was not identified, fired a single shotgun round into the house, Cervantes said.

Powell, who was pulled away by deputies, had been hit by a bullet that pierced and exited his right arm and then entered his chest through a side seam in his protective vest. Powell of Torrance worked at the sheriff’s Lakewood station. He died at a nearby hospital 90 minutes later.

A handgun was found in the house, but pending autopsies today on Powell and Reyes, authorities could not confirm whether that was the weapon used to shoot Powell, or if Reyes died of the shotgun blast.

Cervantes said crisis negotiators were at the scene Saturday afternoon but got no response from the house and did not know whether the suspect was alive or dead. Deputies found Reyes’ body after they fired tear gas into the home and entered it about 8:30 p.m.

Another suspect, Robert Hernandez, 22, of Buena Park, was found Saturday hiding in a shed a few blocks away on Arkansas Avenue. He was booked on a burglary charge and is being held in lieu of $30,000 bail.

Cervantes said authorities were unsure of the cause of the initial altercation. They believe that Reyes had randomly chosen the house to which he fled and did not know the woman, who was unhurt and was not identified.