LA County sheriff ’s deputy dies after he is shot in patrol car
PALMDALE, Calif. — A Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department deputy died after he was shot in his patrol car Saturday evening by an unknown assailant, and an investigation is underway that the sheriff said will press all of the department’s resources into action.
Deputy Ryan Clinkunbroomer, 30, died after being transported to a hospital, Sheriff Robert Luna said during a news conference late Saturday night.
The preliminary investigation showed Clinkunbroomer was driving while on duty and fired upon around 6 p.m., Luna said.
Clinkunbroomer was unconscious in the vehicle when he was found near the intersection of Sierra Highway and Avenue Q in Palmdale by a person Luna identified as a “good Samaritan” who alerted personnel at the Palmdale station of the sheriff ’s department.
The deputy was taken to Antelope Valley Medical Center in Lancaster, where he was treated for a gunshot wound.
“Despite the medical staff ’s best efforts to save our deputy’s life, regrettably he succumbed to his injuries,” Luna said.
Homicide investigators are aware of video from a surveillance camera that may have captured the shooting, Luna said.
Luna said he believed the shooting was a “targeted attack.” But the motive, and whether the deputy or the department in general was the target, was not yet known.
“We’re going to catch the person who did this,” Luna said. “Because every resource that the Los Angeles County Sheriff ’s Department has to bear is going after you.”
Clinkunbroomer, who transferred to the Palmdale station in July 2018, was a third-generation officer who followed his grandfather and father into the sheriff ’s department, Luna said.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom called the killing “horrific, unconscionable and shocking.” He ordered flags at the state Capitol flown at half-staff in honor of Clinkunbroomer.
“In this time of mourning, we honor this legacy and send our deepest sympathies to Deputy Clinkunbroomer’s fiancée, his loved ones, and the men and women of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department,” Newsom said in a statement Sunday. “Deputy Clinkunbroomer’s devotion to community and country will never be forgotten.”
The sheriff said his department was working closely with representatives from the city of Palmdale, about 61 miles northeast of Los Angeles.
Barrymore changes mind:
Drew Barrymore, who drew criticism for taping new episodes of her daytime talk show despite the ongoing writers and actors strikes, now says she’ll wait until the labor issues are resolved. Hours later CBS’ “The Talk” did the same.
“I have listened to everyone, and I am making the decision to pause the show’s premiere until the strike is over,” Barrymore posted on Instagram on Sunday. “I have no words to express my deepest apologies to anyone I have hurt and, of course, to our incredible team who works on the show and has made it what it is today.”
Barrymore’s initial decision to return to the air Monday — without her three union writers and with picketers outside her studio
— was met with pushback on social media. Her show resumed taping in New York last week and was picketed by striking writers.
Lee weakens: Atlantic storm Lee — which made landfall at near-hurricane strength, bringing destructive winds and torrential rains to New England and Maritime Canada — kept weakening Sunday. Officials withdrew warnings and predicted the storm would disappear early this week.
The U.S. National Hurricane Center said Sunday morning that the post-tropical cyclone was 135 miles west of Channel-port Aux Basques, Newfoundland. The top sustained wind speed was 45 mph with some higher gusts expected.
Indiana AG sues: Indiana’s attorney general has sued the state’s largest hospital system, claiming it violated patient privacy laws when a doctor publicly shared the story of an Ohio girl who
traveled to Indiana for an abortion.
The lawsuit, filed Friday in Indianapolis federal court, marked Attorney General Todd Rokita’s latest attempt to seek disciplinary legal action against Dr. Caitlin Bernard. The doctor’s account of a 10-year-old rape victim traveling to Indiana to receive abortion drugs became a flashpoint in the abortion debate days after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last summer.
Rokita, a Republican, is stridently anti-abortion, and Indiana was the first state to approve abortion restrictions after the court’s decision. The near-total abortion ban recently took effect after legal battles.
Day care death: A day care center operator and her neighbor were charged with murder in the death of a 1-year-old boy exposed to opioids at the New York City center, police said.
As of Sunday afternoon,
they were still waiting to be arraigned. Grei Mendez, 36, who ran Divino Niño in the Bronx, and Carlisto Acevedo Brito, 41, a man who lived at the address listed for the day care center, were both arrested Saturday evening on a count of murder showing “depraved indifference,” four counts of endangering the welfare of a child, 16 counts of assault and criminal possession of drugs.
Emergency workers arrived at the six-story brick building in the north Bronx around 2:45 p.m. Friday to find Nicholas Feliz Dominici, who would have turned 2 in November, unconscious. They also found a 2-yearold boy and an 8-month-old girl, both “unconscious and unresponsive,” police said.
All three children showed symptoms of opioid exposure, police said.
They gave the young children the overdose-reversal medication Narcan and took them away.
Nicholas was pronounced dead at Montefiore Medical
Center on Friday. By early Saturday, the other children were in critical or stable condition.
Climate rally: Yelling that the future and their lives depend on ending fossil fuels, tens of thousands of protesters Sunday in New York City kicked off a week where leaders will try again to curb climate change caused by coal, oil and natural gas.
But protesters say it’s not enough, and they aimed their wrath at U.S. President Joe Biden, urging him to stop approving new oil and gas projects, phase out current ones and declare a climate emergency with larger executive powers.
“We hold the power of the people, the power you need to win this election,” said 17-year-old Emma Buretta, of Brooklyn, of the youth protest group Fridays for Future. “If you want to win in 2024, if you do not want the blood of my generation to be on your hands, end fossil fuels.”