Sheriff’s deputy killed in central California while serving eviction notice
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PORTERVILLE, Calif. (AP) — A man fatally shot a central California sheriff’s deputy Thursday morning while authorities were serving an eviction notice and was killed by officers after an hourslong standoff.
Tulare County deputies were serving the eviction notice at a home in Porterville when a 60-year-old man opened fire on them, the sheriff’s department wrote on Facebook. Porterville is about 150 miles (240 kilometers) northeast of Los Angeles in the state’s Central Valley.
The man was barricaded inside the home with a rifle for several hours. At one point, authorities deployed gas into the home as the man continued to fire at law enforcement. The standoff ended around 6 p.m. when the man left the home and moved through the yards of nearby homes, Sheriff Mike Boudreaux said at an evening news conference.
Boudreaux said a Kern County SWAT team drove an armored car into the yard where the man was laying on the ground and he started firing at them. The team drove the car over the man, killing him.
Bystander video shot from a driveway and posted by the Visalia Times-Delta shows several armed deputies crouched on the ground in the road when a series of shots ring out and some of the deputies run away. The gunman cannot be seen from the video. Additional video shows someone being carried into an emergency medical vehicle.
Boudreaux said the man had failed to pay rent for 35 days and had been expecting law enforcement to arrive to serve a final notice for eviction. Boudreaux said he “laid in wait” and immediately shot at officers when they arrived.
The man’s family was in contact with him and urged him to come out peacefully, but he refused, Boudreaux said.
The deputy was killed was part of a group of officers that arrived to help after gunfire began, Boudreaux said.
He was later identified as Detective Randy Hoppert, a veteran of the U.S. Navy who joined the sheriff’s department in 2020.
“This is senseless,” Boudreaux said.
Residents in the neighborhood were evacuated by SWAT teams or urged to shelter in place for several hours Thursday afternoon. Nearby schools were on lockdown.
Miguel Ibarra, whose 82-year-old mother lives across the street from the gunman, said it was surreal to see his parents’ house on TV in what is normally a quiet, boring neighborhood.
“The police did a really good job keeping us informed and keeping us in the know of what’s going on,” he said.