Remains at Site of Shootout Believed to Be Deputy’s Killer

Charred remains found after a fiery shootout are believed to be those of a High Desert hermit suspected of killing the town sheriff, authorities said Saturday, and Lake Los Angeles residents expressed relief that a weeklong manhunt for the suspect was over.

“It brings some closure, at least to this chapter of a very tragic story,” said John Wodetzki, referring to the apparent death late Friday of the suspect who had barricaded himself inside a shack about 10 miles east of Palmdale.

Friends and family of Deputy Stephen Sorensen vowed to carry on the officer’s efforts to polish the town’s image and clean up crime in an area with a reputation for gangs, drug lab operators and others living on the fringes of the law.

“Steve impacted our lives in so many ways, there will always be a huge gap there with his absence,” said Wodetzki, Sorensen’s friend and pastor.

A coroner’s investigation will be conducted to positively identify the remains, but sheriff’s officials said they are virtually certain that Donald Charles Kueck, 52, died after an intense gun battle Friday night with the Los Angeles County sheriff’s SWAT team.

The remains were found shortly after midnight after a complex of outbuildings where Kueck was believed to be hiding burned to the ground.

“Now we know at least they got the suspect and that it ended that phase of this terrible event,” Wodetzki said. “He’s no longer a threat to the community.”

“This closes the case, if indeed it is the suspect’s remains in there,” Sheriff’s Lt. Joe Hartshorne said at the scene of the smoldering rubble, where coroner’s investigators gathered evidence Saturday. “We believe he acted alone. We are not actively looking for anybody else.”

Hartshorne said there was no evidence anyone had helped Kueck elude authorities for nearly a week after the deputy’s Aug. 2 slaying. Sorensen, the resident deputy and the only full-time peace officer for a remote 150-square-mile area, was shot to death outside Kueck’s trailer home in the tiny community of Llano.

Sorensen, buried Thursday in a funeral attended by an estimated 3,000 people, including Gov. Gray Davis, was known for buying groceries for poor residents and cleaning up debris-strewn lots on his own time.

Other friends cited several instances of Sorensen catching petty thieves and working out repayment to the victims without formal arrests.

“Steve fought for his community,” Wodetzki said. “He started a lot of good things that the people who were close to him plan on carrying on. Steve really wanted us to become a city. We hope to accomplish that” as a tribute to the deputy.

On Friday afternoon, deputies tracked Kueck to a friend’s home less than five miles away. The friend was not home when Kueck arrived and did not aid him in any way, Hartshorne said.

Sheriff Lee Baca said negotiators spoke to Kueck on Sorensen’s two-way radio, which was missing from the slaying scene, and said Kueck admitted then to killing the deputy.

Kueck was heavily armed and apparently determined not to be taken without a fight, Hartshorne said. The lieutenant said the running gun battle lasted more than half an hour. Kueck was believed to have been armed with a high-powered .223-caliber rifle used in the deputy’s slaying.

Arson investigators were combing the ruins Saturday, attempting to learn what started the fire.

“We did shoot [tear] gas into the sheds. It could have been a hot canister that started it. We don’t know what was in the sheds. Or he might have started it himself,” Hartshorne said.

Kueck had ample opportunity to surrender but chose not to, officials said.

“This individual posed a danger to anyone near him,” Hartshorne said.

Little is known about Kueck, other than that he had a history of resisting arrest in brushes with the law. Hartshorne said Kueck had no family in the area and efforts were being made Saturday to contact relatives.

Sheriff’s officials said Kueck apparently did not want law enforcement to come onto his property.