O.C. reserve deputy suffers severe head injuries
An Orange County sheriff’s reserve deputy was in critical condition Wednesday afternoon with severe head injuries after what appeared to be a domestic incident, authorities said.
A 17-year-old male who also lives in the home in the 21000 block of Shadow Rock Lane in Rancho Santa Margarita is being questioned by investigators as a person of interest, Orange County Sheriff’s Department spokesman Jim Amormino said.
Amormino said he could not confirm the relationship between the victim and the teenager.
Authorities received a call from the 50-year-old victim’s mother at 9:30 a.m. Wednesday, saying she had found her son unconscious and seriously wounded, Amormino said.
The man was taken to Mission Hospital Regional Medical Center in Mission Viejo, where it was determined that the injuries were caused by blunt-force trauma or possibly a gunshot wound to the head.
“We still don’t know definitively,” Amormino said. “It could be a pipe, it could be a hammer, it could be anything like that.”
The 17-year-old, driving a black Volkswagen convertible, was pulled over on Gage Avenue in East Los Angeles after California Highway Patrol officers spotted him near the intersection of the 605 and 5 freeways. He was returned to Orange County for questioning. Authorities said no weapons were found in the vehicle.
Amormino said the department plans to execute a search warrant in the home. He stressed: “There is no cause for any alarm in the community. This basically happened inside the home.”
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