Shooter at large after LA deputy shot at sheriff’s station

p.m., Capt. Todd Weber said.

“He is doing great, thankfully,” Weber said. “The wound was minor and he’s been treated and he’s doing well, in high spirits.” No surgery was needed, he added.

Mayor R. Rex Parris said the deputy was wearing a ballistic vest that deflected the bullet into his shoulder.

Deputies searched for the sniper inside the blocklong, four-story structure with many windows that overlook the sheriff’s facility in downtown Lancaster, a desert city of about 160,000 people north of Los Angeles.

Tactical teams were working their way through the building Wednesday night, evacuating some people and having others shelter in place, Weber said.

They had no description of the shooter but believed they could narrow down the area of the building where the attacker might be, Weber said.

Reinosa has been with the Sheriff’s Department for about a year and joined the Lancaster station in May for patrol training, Weber said.

The mayor said it appeared that the shooting was a random act.

“It was not targeted on this specific deputy,” he said. “It was, ‘any deputy would do.’”

The apartment building is adjacent to and partners with a nonprofit that provides housing, counseling and other services to people with mental health issues, according to the website for Mental Health America, Antelope Valley Enrichment Services.

The nonprofit said several housing units are “designated specifically for individuals with disabilities ... who are ready for independent living.”

But the mayor said the building “caters to, is designed for and allows mentally ill people to live there. That’s all that lives there, is mentally ill people.”

A perimeter was set up as deputies used binoculars to determine where the gunfire came from after the shooting.