32-year-old Steven Carrillo, an active-duty U.S. Air Force Sergeant, is now expected to be charged with murder and several other felony charges in the days to come, after killing 38-year-old Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Deputy Sgt. Damon Gutzwiller.
What We Know
- Steven Carrillo is a 32-year-old active-duty U.S. Air Force Sergeant, who was stationed at Travis Air Force Base in Northern California and is expected to be charged with murder after killing a California deputy.
- The incident occurred around 1:30 p.m. on Saturday when 911 operators received a call about a white van spotted with guns and bomb-making materials visible on Jamison Creek Road, near the unincorporated Santa Cruz County area of Boulder Creek.
- When the deputies arrived, one of them being California deputy Sgt. Damon Gutzwiller, a 14-year veteran, the van was spotted leaving.
- The deputies attempted to follow the van and eventually found it at a Ben Lomond home, according to Sheriff Jim Hart. That’s where things went south when the deputies were ambushed with gunfire and improvised explosives, where the California deputy Sgt. Gutzwiller was shot.
- Gutzwiller was transported to the hospital where he was pronounced dead and the second deputy was injured by either getting shot or hit by shrapnel and was struck by a car while the suspect fled the scene. And according to Hart, a third officer, from the California Highway Patrol, was shot in the hand.
- After the ambush, dispatchers received multiple reports of a carjacking nearby and officers from different departments across Santa Cruz arrived at the area where it was reported. The police were finally able to arrest Carrillo during his attempts at carjacking and fleeing the scene. The suspect was shot during his capture but isn’t facing life-threatening injuries.
- Now, investigators think this links to an incident on May 29 where a Federal Protective Service officer was killed and a second officer injured in Oakland, Calif., because both incidents involved a white van.
The vigil for California deputy Sgt. Gutzwiller was held on Sunday afternoon. Gutzwiller leaves behind a child and a pregnant widow.
