LA County sheriff provides update after deputy shot in West Covina

this is live with Sheriff Luna good everybody I was just going to see if you could hear me and it sounds like you can I'm here to brief you on the details regarding our Los Angeles County Deputy uh who was shot in the line of duty now uh just to be clear the information that I'm going to provide is preliminary and it's going to change uh so I'll try and give you the best information possible but be patient with us because like I said unfortunately it will uh change or maybe fortunately for us these are the facts as we know this afternoon at approximately 2:45 p.m. Deputy Samuel asuro was on duty attending training in uniform working Patrol as a motorcycle unit he was waiting at a red light on his marked LA County Sheriff's motorcycle in the southbound Lanes of North baranka Street at the intersection of East Garvey Avenue here in the city of West Cina when he was shot in the back I want to repeat that he was sitting on a marked black and white police motorcycle in full uniform and and he was shot in the back Deputy asuro was transported to a local hospital where he was treated and thank God the bullet did not penetrate his bulletproof vest fortunately or sorry based on the examination of his vest he was struck once and I'm very grateful to say that he is currently listed in stable condition at this time the Los Angeles County homicide investigators are investigating this shooting with the assistance from the West Cina Police Department detectives are in the initial stages of this investigation and are seeking The public's assistance to apprehend this suspect anyone that was in the area of again at the intersection of North baranka Street and East Garvey around 245 today and you think you saw something you need to contact us because we need to get this individual who did this to one of our deputies and I say ours because it's our community he's a servant and he was shot in the back and we consider this this individual to be a public safety risk at this point so if you have information please contact us I'm going to give you some information on that and uh you've seen some activity uh we did detain uh several individuals we called them people of interest uh we are in the process of releasing them at this time because they may not and I underline may not be involved in this but according to another witness there may be another vehicle of interest that we again want to bring the community's attention to so again going back to this area even if you've seen anything at all but specifically if you saw a white sedan with tinted windows last seen westbound on the 10 freeway from baranka please we need to hear from you we need to hear from you because right now there is somebody out there armed with a firearm who shot one of our deputies in the back and if he's willing to do that I'm sure he's willing to shoot at anybody else and we collectively all of us need to get them off the streets if you have any information uh please call our homicide detectives at 323 8955 or you can remain anonymous by calling La Crim Stoppers at 1 800222 tips again we're standing in front of you I appreciate all of our partners in the media being here but I'm reaching out to our community somebody saw something and we need to get this person off the street I stand ready to answer any questions that you may have the first question I just heard is uh is there any video uh as you see uh from our department and the resources from the West cavina Police Department we have a lot of resources on site and we have more in route uh we have a lot of investigative steps to take reviewing video will be a very important aspect of what we're looking at and if we gain any new information uh we'll do whatever we can to put it out I heard a question over here to my right was he training was he a training Deputy uh the question is was he a training Deputy he was on uh one of our uh assigned uh motorcycles uh LA County uh Sheriff's Department motorcycle in uniform and his assignment for today was he was going to training what's the Intel that led you to the lente location and what can you tell us about the people who were detained there I'm sorry can you repeat the question what was the Intel that led you to the lente location and what can you tell us about the people that were detained at that location so what was the information that led us to the location in La pente that many of you have seen the news coverage on uh we immediately the the deputy did an amazing job of putting out emergency broadcasted information just a absolutely heroic amazing and there was some information that initially came out uh there were some people who came forward but as you can just picture yourself waiting for a red light at an intersection and all of a sudden you hear a gunshot who saw what cars are leaving they're going in different directions um so at one point we had some preliminary information that we thought we had another potential suspect vehicle or at least a vehicle of Interest that's what led us to that location and some other individuals uh but as you see our resources here we're not only looking for those responsible but if we have information and we come across people who are not responsible we want to let them uh free as soon as we possibly can was there only one shot fired and any indication if it was at close range as far as we know now I can tell you that the deputy was hit once in the back uh how many shots were fired uh will establish that uh behind me you're seeing a very active crime uh investigation or a crime scene I should say uh I don't want to say just one two until we determine that for sure in regards to the range that this occurred uh that is still being determined by the investigation all options are on the table we don't know so uh that's why information you are our eyes and ears out there that's why we need information coming forward so we can look at every angle cuz our intent is we're going to get you but we need your help do you believe SCH his [Music] life uh the question was do we have any information on the license plate that's the type of information we need from the public and as we are out there canvasing for video uh we may come up with something and as soon as we do we'll put something out there was another question over here I'm sorry you believe the bulletproof yes the bulletproof vest he was wearing absolutely saved his life this an ambush attack can you speak to that a little bit about an attack on auty who the question is do I consider this an ambush and then talk talking about the style of attack uh what kind of person shoots another person in the back I could think of a lot of names for that I won't describe them right now but if you're shooting a deputy sheriff that's sitting on a motorcycle waiting for a red light uh and you shoot him in the back uh to me that's the worst of the worst that you can call it an ambush again there's a lot of uh words that I can come up with with uh for that and none of them are good right now uh we don't know yet we intend to find out but at the end of the day I have a servant a public servant sitting at a red light sounds a little familiar from what happened to us in the past just waiting for a red light to turn in full uniform and he shot in the back that's acceptable what are you telling your deputies uh first of all we check on each other uh and these men and women around me uh they work together uh this is the toughest job in America hands down and this proves it again that we're just sitting at an intersection and we get shot in the back so we will console each other we have our Psychological Services that will be out here and we'll continue to check on our employees and then we're communicating not not only with our the members of our department but uh through just like we would expect it from any other department we're sharing as much as we can with Allied agencies because we don't want one of their officers sitting at an intersection and being shot in the back the way our Deputy was earlier today this investigation how long we expect this overpass uh the this intersection will be closed until the crime scene is processed and then secured um we'll get back to you on how much time we don't want to inconvenient anybody but we have work to do to make sure that we get every clue collect all the evidence we can to uh apprehend uh this individual our Deputy has been on the department just short of 20 years about 19 and A2 years he's married he has two children ages four and two so if you can imagine their reaction when we tell them their husband and father would just shot in the back uh but we'll take care of the family that's our priority as we will take care of our employees and I'm sorry uh he is uh 43 years old and with that I really appreciate you guys covering this story please get it out to everybody we need to get this individual off our streets thank you all right you've been listening to a very important press conference from Sheriff Robert Luna about this incident that happened about 2:45 this afternoon in West Cina where a deputy that was sitting on that motorbike was shot in the back luckily he was wearing his vest the bullet did not penetrate he said to be in stable condition at the hospital right now but more importantly we move over to who possibly could have done this somebody clearly sitting behi uh behind the deputy basically calling this some sort of an ambush that person fired at least one shot maybe more that's part of the investigation hit him squarely in the back and then took off the sheriff's department is now looking for a white vehicle of some sort hoping that somebody saw what happened that vehicle took off onto the 10 freeway from that intersection bar uh and East Garvey and said going Southbound on the 10 freeway if you saw anything please contact law enforcement call 911 call Crim Stoppers but they feel that this is definitely a risk to the community they have to find the person who did this they're looking at video right now and any other piece of this investigation that could bring an answer to who did this but right now we did report earlier some people of Interest were taken into custody they are now being released and and it sounds like they feel like they do not have their man so this investigation will continue we'll be right back

Channel: ABC7

Views: 27,073

Keywords: news, eyewitness news, abc7 los angeles

Id: oFKu2XD3xgY

Length: 13min 46sec (826 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 23 2024