SCVSheriff.com has a new blog post today adding some more details on a Deputy-involved shooting incident that occurred Friday evening in Canyon Country.
The Sheriff’s description of the incident doesn’t contradict what we’ve seen in media reports so far, but it does leave some details out, and notably, doesn’t describe the “shiny” object mentioned in other reports as a gun.
Recall that two Deputies were eating dinner outside their patrol car on Soledad Canyon Road around 8pm when they saw four individuals fighting in the same parking lot. The Sheriff’s blog takes over from here:
As the deputies walked toward the individuals, they saw one of them, later identified as suspect Louie Moreno, MH/20, swing a large metallic object at one of the other individual’s head.
Deputies ordered the parties to stop fighting. Suspect Moreno ran and entered a vehicle. Moreno then pointed the metallic object outside the driver’s side window toward the deputies. Believing the object was a large handgun and fearing for their safety, both deputies fired their duty weapons at suspect Moreno, missing him but striking the vehicle. Moreno then drove out of view.
This account confirms what KHTS reported yesterday, namely that the suspect pointed an object at Deputies while he was seated in his car. We still don’t know if the suspect drove his car at the Deputies or away from them and where the bullets impacted on the vehicle.
As to the “metallic object”, KHTS reported that Deputies found a “chrome plated tire iron” inside of Moreno’s car once they apprehended him at his home later that evening.
There’s no mention of what that object is in the Sheriff’s post, but the Department says it is charging Moreno with “Assault with a Firearm” and holding him on $50,000 bail. The Signal quoted a Sheriff’s source today and reported that Moreno was being charged with “Assault with a Deadly weapon.”
It’s not clear if those charges are the same, nor is it clear if the charges relate to Moreno allegedly striking the other person’s head or pointing the object at Deputies.