Sex offender found dead after gun battle with Los Angeles sheriff’s deputies faced child porn charges
A sex offender who died Monday in a shootout with Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies outside the department’s Temple City station was facing child pornography charges, officials said.
Andrew Jared Lane was being investigated by the Los Angeles Police Department in connection with child pornography allegations, said Shiara Davila-Morales, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office.
Prosecutors charged Lane on Jan. 19 with two felony counts of distributing child pornography in connection with a $40,000 arrest warrant, she said. The case stemmed from a Dec. 8, 2015, incident, according to court records.
Deputies discovered the warrant when they met with Lane on Monday morning when he visited the Temple City sheriff’s station on Las Tunas Drive to register as a sex offender, officials said.
As deputies approached Lane to take him into custody on the warrant, he ran to his SUV, got into the back seat and armed himself with a shotgun, the Sheriff’s Department said in a written statement.
He began firing at deputies and the station building, leading to a gun battle with deputies, said Capt. Steven Katz, who heads the Sheriff’s Department’s homicide bureau. No deputies were injured.
When the gunfire ended, members of the Sheriff’s Department’s special weapons team checked the SUV and discovered Lane was dead. A shotgun and handgun were found inside the SUV, Katz said.
At a news conference Monday, Katz said that Lane suffered an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound. But authorities could not say if he died from the self-inflicted gunshot or deputy gunfire.
On Wednesday, Los Angeles County coroner’s officials said Lane’s autopsy is pending, and his cause of death has not been determined.
In August 2001, Lane was convicted of oral copulation with an individual younger than 18 and furnishing a controlled substance to a minor, according to court records. He was sentenced to more than six years in prison.
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