Action in Death of Armed Man Found Lawful

Sheriff’s deputies acted lawfully and properly when they tossed burning road flares into a desert fugitive’s hide-out last August and ignited a blaze that was partially responsible for killing the gunman, according to a review of the incident by the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office.

The report released Wednesday details the events of a fierce Aug. 8, 2003, gun battle between sheriff’s deputies and a heavily armed Antelope Valley man who had killed a uniformed sheriff’s deputy days earlier. Law enforcement officers attempted repeatedly to bring the confrontation to a peaceful end, the report said, and resorted to deadly force only when fired upon numerous times by the fugitive, Donald Kueck.

“Based on the evidence, we find that the tactics employed, albeit unique, were resourceful, and the level of force utilized by law enforcement personnel at the scene was both reasonable and lawful under the circumstances,” wrote Deputy Dist. Atty. Michael Mallano. The file will be closed and no further action will be taken in the matter, the report said.

The incident generated heavy public interest because of its violent nature and the unusual manner in which officers attempted to flush Kueck from his home. Sheriff Lee Baca acknowledged that using road flares to set fire to a barricaded suspect’s residence had been “unorthodox” but said it had been warranted. Civil liberties advocates condemned the action as “rogue justice.”

“The finding by the district attorney is consistent with the laws regarding the use of deadly force,” Baca said.

The incident is also being reviewed by the Sheriff’s Department’s internal affairs bureau and the Office of Independent Review, its watchdog agency.

The incident stemmed from the Aug. 2 killing of Sheriff’s Deputy Stephen Sorenson, who was shot with a .223-caliber rifle and robbed of his police radio, service pistol and backup revolver. Kueck, an unemployed drug addict with a criminal record dating to the 1990s, was a suspect in the killing, and authorities obtained a warrant to search a Llano home and take him into custody.

Before raiding the home, officers reached the fugitive on his telephone, and he admitted shooting Sorenson in the side, the report said. Authorities remained in contact with Kueck until 6 p.m. that day, and deputies “repeatedly advised that he would be treated properly, were he to surrender peacefully,” according to the report.

But in telephone conversations with his daughter, Kueck appeared to be growing incoherent and falling into despair.

“Earlier that day, Kueck told his daughter, ‘I just hope I die before I kill them.’ ‘They are Gestapo; these aren’t innocent men,’ ” the report quoted him as saying.

In preparation for the raid on Kueck’s home, which was in the middle of a desert plain, the Los Angeles Police Department supplied an armored vehicle with a tear gas boom that could batter openings in structures and fill them with tear gas. Before rolling onto Kueck’s property authorities broadcast regular demands throughout the evening on loudspeakers for Kueck to surrender peacefully.

Commanders at the scene eventually ordered the armored vehicle to pump tear gas into Kueck’s hide-out, in hopes that it would force him outdoors. But the gas was dispersed by the wind and “appeared to have little success,” the report said.

Authorities then decided to use the armored vehicle to break holes in the home, thereby exposing Kueck and forcing his surrender. Officers managed to collapse a portion of roof on the building’s northwest side, when they heard Kueck firing at them with small-caliber handguns and later a high-powered rifle.

The armored vehicle was struck multiple times, and officers heard bullets “whizzing” by their heads, the report said. Officers returned fire. “An intense firefight broke out, and the deputies could see muzzle flashes coming from the northwest structure,” the report said.

Sheriff’s deputies then threw additional tear gas and concussion grenades into the structure, drawing more gunfire from the fugitive, it said.

When further loudspeaker calls for surrender were met with more shots, scene commanders agreed on the unusual tactic of throwing lighted road flares into the bunkered home.

“The hope was to force Kueck out of the structure with heat and then use nonlethal force to take him into custody,” the report said.

The building was eventually consumed by flames, which were stoked by high winds. Investigators found Kueck’s badly burned body inside, along with a high-powered .223 Daewoo assault rifle and the slain deputy’s two handguns and radio.

An autopsy revealed that Kueck had died from “multiple firearms wounds with a contributing factor of probable effects of thermal burns,” the report said. The coroner also recovered “one expended bullet from Kueck’s body that was most consistent with ammunition for a .38-caliber or a .357-magnum,” the report said.

“It should be noted that no law enforcement personnel fired weapons of either of these calibers. Thus, it was determined that this round was in all likelihood self-inflicted.” But the report did not say where the bullet had been located or whether it had been fatal.

Based on the circumstances of the gunfight and the condition of the body, prosecutors concluded that “Kueck’s refusal to comply with lawful commands and his armed assault with a high-powered .223-caliber assault rifle necessitated the use of an array of tactics by the deputies and officers involved in the incident,” the report said.

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Times staff writers Christiana Sciaudone and Richard Winton contributed to this report.