First suspect identified in shootout with Riverside County deputies
Riverside County officials have identified one of the people allegedly involved in a shootout Wednesday evening with sheriff’s deputies that sent one suspect and one deputy to the hospital.
Authorities announced Saturday they had charged Jose Eduardo Rosales Perez, 34, of Desert Hot Springs, with three counts of attempted murder of a peace officer. He was booked into John J. Benoit Detention Center.
Officials said the second suspect and the deputy were still hospitalized, and that an investigation into the shooting is ongoing. Officials declined to release the names of either the wounded deputy or the wounded suspect.
Detectives were pursuing a larger drug trafficking case when they zeroed in on a Riverside County deputy. Sheriff’s officials say he worked for a Mexican drug cartel
The incident began shortly after 7 p.m. Wednesday when sheriff’s deputies arrived at the intersection of Ramon and Robert roads in unincorporated Thousand Palms and tried to detain a person suspected of in a felony hit-and-run case.
The man refused to exit the vehicle, officials said, and deputies called in the Sheriff Office’s Special Enforcement Bureau and the California Highway Patrol to assist.
At some point, a passenger in the vehicle began shooting at deputies, according to the Riverside County Sheriff’s Office, sparking a shootout.
A law enforcement source who was not authorized to speak publicly had previously told The Times that the deputy was in the office’s field training program, meaning the deputy was either a new academy graduate or was being transferred from a correctional facility to patrol duty.
Times staff writer Noah Goldberg contributed to this report.
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