Father says suspect has mental illness

The father of a man suspected of opening fire at a California police station, wounding a deputy with a shot to the face and killing a transient man in a separate shooting said his son has mental illnesses and refuses to take medication but has no particular animus toward law enforcement.

As hundreds of police officers searched Thursday for Mason James Lira, his father said he had been diagnosed with schizophrenia, Asperger’s syndrome and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Jose Lira said his son often thinks he is a special agent or a solider and may believe he is under attack or in a war zone.

Although authorities have described the attack on the Paso Robles police station as an ambush, his father thinks it might have been a suicide attempt.

“He lives in a fantasy world,“Jose Lira told The Associated Press. “He doesn’t have a beef with the police.”

Authorities have been hunting for Lira, 26, saying he shot at the downtown Paso Robles Police Department before dawn Wednesday. Officials later discovered the body of a man, who had been shot in the head at close range.

“It’s a wide-ranging, full-on, full-scale effort,” said Tony Cipolla, spokesman for the San Luis Obispo County sheriff.

The search intensified Thursday in Paso Robles, a tourist destination in California’s central coast wine region. Police closed parts of a freeway and used flash-bangs while searching apartments.

Jose Lira said he last spoke to his son about two months ago, when he was threatened by him and became belligerent.

— Associated Press