Announced on Sunday, a substantial reward of $250,000 is being offered by authorities for intelligence that leads to the arrest and conviction of the individual or individuals behind the fatal shooting of a Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy. Deputy Ryan Clinkunbroomer, aged 30, was found unconscious by a passer-by in his patrol car at around 6 p.m. on Saturday, in the vicinity of the sheriff’s station in Palmdale, approximately 60 miles north of Los Angeles.
Donning his uniform and fully on duty, the deputy was announced dead, later, at a local hospital, confirmed by Los Angeles Sheriff Robert Luna. “This kind of assault on a deputy sheriff should be publicly intolerable, not just in our community, but nationwide,” Luna stated during a Sunday press conference, expressing his disbelief at the unfathomable act.
The County of Los Angeles Board of Supervisors is anticipated to approve a reward of $100,000 this following week. This amount is set to be matched by the City of Palmdale, whilst the Association for Los Angeles Deputy Sheriffs is contributing an additional $50,000. Luna challenged the public’s moral standing, hoping this to be the push inciting them to find the act intolerable and thus, come forward with any information.
The identity of the assassin who fired at the deputy remains unknown as of now. Nevertheless, a surveillance video unearthed a vehicle of interest in close proximity at the time of Clinkunbroomer’s fatal shooting, identified as a 2006 to 2012 dark gray Toyota Corolla. The aforementioned vehicle, suspected to belong to the shooter, was displayed in a bulletin released by the LA County Sheriff’s Department on Sunday night.
The department, keen to solve the mystery, urges the public to verify if any captured footage could possibly contain evidence that aids in the arrest of the suspect. Luna begged, “Please check your feeds and share any potential leads. We are certain someone knows something that can put this right.”
The President of the Deputy Sheriffs Association, Rich Pippin, expressed his anguish, stating that Clinkunbroomer’s murder was not an attack on an individual, but on the entire law enforcement profession. “This was an attack on all of us,” Pippin emphasised during Sunday’s news conference.
On Sunday, authorities confessed that they were yet to identify the motive for such an abhorrent act. Luna, however, did hazard a guess that it could have been a targeted attack, based on existing evidence.
Deputy Clinkunbroomer had been with the department for eight years and had recently transferred to the Palmdale sheriff’s station in 2018, as a field training officer. Describing Slinkunbroomer as a beloved part of the community and a committed family man, Luna bemoaned that the deputy was unfairly shot while diligently serving his community. Clinkunbroomer, whose father and grandfather both served in the sheriff’s department, had gotten engaged just four days prior to the appalling incident.
The Saturday shooting now joins the growing list of ambush-style attacks on law enforcement, a grim tally that includes a 2023 incident wherein two deputies in Los Angeles were ambushed at a train station whilst inside their squad car. An alarming total of 83 such attacks occurred in 2023 alone, leading to 101 officers being shot, 15 of them fatally. The statistics were released in a report by the Fraternal Order of Police dated 5th of September.
