The man who shot two sheriff deputies as they sat in their car on September 12th has been arrested and charged with the ambush and attempted murder of these two deputies:
ABC 7 – An ex-con arrested earlier this month in connection to a carjacking in Lynwood was charged Wednesday with attempted murder in the ambush shooting of two Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies who were critically wounded while sitting in their patrol car near a Metro station in Compton.
The suspect, identified as 36-year-old Deonte Lee Murray, is set to be arraigned Wednesday at the Compton courthouse on two counts each of attempted murder of a peace officer and possession of a firearm by a felon in connection with the Sept. 12 attack on the deputies.
He had already been charged Sept. 17 with one felony count each of carjacking, second-degree robbery and assault with a semi-automatic firearm — along with gang and gun allegations — involving a Sept. 1 carjacking in Compton, in which he allegedly shot a 51-year-old man in the leg with a high-powered rifle and stole his black Mercedes-Benz. He pleaded not guilty to those charges and has remained behind bars since his Sept. 15 arrest.
Murray, who authorities say is associated with multiple gangs, could face a potential life prison term if convicted of the charges, District Attorney Jackie Lacey. Sheriff’s Homicide Bureau Capt. Kent Wegener, who detailed the investigation, did not suggest a specific motive for the attack “other than the fact that he obviously hates policemen and he wants them dead.”
Murray allegedly fled the scene of the deputies’ shooting in the stolen black sedan and discarded a pistol while being pursued by sheriff’s investigators prior to a standoff in Lynwood, according to Wegener. The pistol was the same one that had been used to shoot the sheriff’s deputies in Compton and was “conclusively linked through forensic testing” to Murray, he said.
At the time, Sheriff Alex Villanueva told multiple media outlets that there was no connection between the ambush of the deputies and the carjacking suspect, who was arrested after a chase and standoff that ended in Lynwood.
Investigators initially had no evidence that Murray — who has prior convictions for sales and possession of narcotics, firearm possession by a felon or addict, receiving stolen property, burglary and terrorist threats — was responsible for the attack on the deputies, according to Wegener.
“We knew that he was a violent offender, was accused of stealing a black Mercedes-Benz and lived in the area. However, there was insufficient evidence to support an arrest, much less a criminal filing for the charge of attempted murder on a peace officer and to label him in the media as the person responsible,” the sheriff’s homicide captain said.
This is great news! And I’m glad that Murray has been behind bars since the 15th of this month, especially since it took them a while to connect the dots on this one.
There are a couple of different mugshots floating around on Twitter, but I can’t find one from a good source so I can’t verify if it’s the right man.
Below is the press conference from today if you want more information: