A 29-year-old California man was arrested Monday, 36 hours after the ambush killing of a Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy who was shot as he sat in a patrol car. The suspect barricaded himself inside a home in Palmdale for several hours, but surrendered and weapons were recovered. The arrested suspect is Kevin Cataneo Salazar of Palmdale. Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna said authorities have not yet determined a motive for the killing of deputy Ryan Clinkunbroomer, 30, on Saturday evening.
“Our deputy was in uniform in a marked black-and-white police vehicle right in front of the station,” Luna said. “Why did he do this? I have no idea. Was he targeted? I’m assuming he was but ... our intent is to find out.” The suspect’s mother, Marle Salazar, told the Los Angeles Times her son was diagnosed as paranoid schizophrenic about five years ago. He would say he was hearing voices in his head, she said, and sometimes claimed that cars or people were following him. He twice attempted suicide. “My son is mentally ill, and if he did something, he wasn’t in his full mental capacity,” she said. Clinkunbroomer had just left the sheriff’s station in Palmdale, a city of 67,000 residents in the high desert of northern Los Angeles County, when he was shot and killed. A “good Samaritan” spotted him and alerted station personnel. The department released grainy surveillance video of a dark-colored sedan that pulled alongside the patrol car in the moments before the shooting.
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