Sept. 30 (UPI) — Authorities have arrested a man accused of shooting two Los Angeles sheriff’s deputies ambush-style earlier this month in Compton, prosecutors announced Wednesday.
District Attorney Jackie Lacey said Deonte Lee Murray, 36, was expected to be arraigned in the afternoon on two counts of willful, deliberate and premeditated attempted murder of a peace officer and two counts of possession of a firearm by a felon.
Lacey announced the arrest and charges during a news conference with other law enforcement officials.
Law enforcement officials have been searching for a gunman in the Sept. 12 shooting, which left two Los Angeles Sheriff’s office deputies critically wounded, each with a gunshot to the head. Surveillance video showed a single suspect running from the scene after shooting the two officials who were on patrol in their vehicle. Police believe he acted alone.
LASD Homicide Bureau Capt. Kent Wegener declined to reveal a motive for the shootings, but said Murray “obviously hates policemen and wants them dead.”
Murray was arrested Sept. 15 for an armed carjacking two days after the shooting of the deputies. Police said forensic evidence later linked him to the shooting.
Wegener said that though authorities knew Murray was “a violent offender,” there wasn’t initially enough evidence to support an arrest or release his name to the public.
“Additionally, bringing the public focus on him at that point of the investigation may have influenced the pending witness interviews and further compromised the mission of solving the attempted murder of the deputies,” Wegener said. “As the investigation progressed, we gathered sufficient evidence to substantiate not only the arrest but the filing of criminal charges in this case.”
