L.A. Police Arrest Suspect in Ambush Shooting of Two Officers
The Los Angeles sheriff’s department and district attorney on Wednesday announced the arrest of a suspect in the shooting of two police officers earlier this month.
Deonte Murray, 36, was charged with two counts of attempted murder in the September 12 shooting of officers in L.A.’s Compton neighborhood, which was caught on surveillance footage. The officers, a 31-year-old mother and her patrol partner, a 24-year-old male, were treated at the hospital and have since been released.
Demonstrators called for the death of both officers outside the hospital shortly after the shooting. L.A. County sheriff Alex Villanueva compared the demonstrators to ISIS at the time, calling it “a new low for the hatred that I don’t think anyone in this nation has ever seen before.”
Murray has previous convictions for drug and firearm-related offenses.
Sheriff’s captain Kent Wegener told reporters at the announcement that Murray was arrested on September 15 following a carjacking on September 1, unrelated to the shooting of the officers. During the carjacking, Murray allegedly shot a victim with a rifle and stole the victim’s Mercedes.
“At the time of the arrest of Deonte Murray on Sept. 15 following [a] vehicle pursuit…we had no evidence that he was responsible for the assault on our deputies,” Wegener said, explaining the decision not to announce Murray’s arrest earlier. “Bringing the public focus on him at that point in the investigation may have influenced the pending witness interviews.”
