A man who allegedly pulled up next to a Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy on patrol in Palmdale nearly three years ago and shot him in broad daylight had aspired to kill a law enforcement officer for years, a prosecutor told a downtown Los Angeles jury Monday.
But the attorney for Kevin Eduardo Cataneo Salazar said in his opening statement that the trial would not focus on whether his client “fired the shot,” but whether the defendant was insane at the time.
Salazar, now 32, is charged with the Sept. 16, 2023, killing of Sheriff’s Deputy Ryan Clinkunbroomer, who was shot in the back of the head in a patrol vehicle while stopped at a red light near the sheriff’s Palmdale station.
The murder charge includes the special circumstance allegations of murder of a peace officer, lying in wait and firing from a vehicle, along with allegations that he personally used and discharged a .22-caliber revolver.
The Palmdale resident entered a dual plea of not guilty and not guilty by reason of insanity in connection with the killing.
Salazar could face life in prison if convicted as charged and found sane. If he is determined to have been insane at the time of the killing, he would be confined to a state hospital rather than prison.
Deputy District Attorney David Ayvazian told the Los Angeles Superior Court jury Monday that Clinkunbroomer “was doing what he loved — working as a deputy sheriff. He died in the line of duty and the only reason he died was because he was a deputy sheriff.”
In court papers, defense attorney George Rosenstock wrote that Salazar was incapable of knowing or understanding the nature and quality of his act and/or could not distinguish right from wrong at the time due to his mental state.
Salazar, wearing street clothing, sat silently facing the judge and did not appear to respond to anything attorneys said. The courtroom in downtown Los Angeles was packed with members of Clinkunbroomer’s family and colleagues from the sheriff’s department.
Both Ayvazian and Rosenstock described the defendant’s apparently irrational behavior on the day of the killing and two days earlier when he was “driving around confronting complete strangers,” the defense lawyer said. Rosenstock added that there was “no apparent reason for selecting Clinkunbroomer” for murder.
Ayvazian told jurors that following his arrest, Salazar told two undercover operatives in jail during a surreptitiously recorded conversation that he had wanted to kill a police officer for years and described following officers, parking and waiting and playing music to prepare himself.
At a June 2024 hearing in which Salazar was ordered to stand trial, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Homicide Detective Gustavo Carrillo testified that Salazar acknowledged his involvement in the shooting during questioning at the Palmdale sheriff’s station by detectives two days after the killing. Salazar told investigators that he felt bad and “cried for the (expletive) officer,” according to the detective.
Under cross-examination by Salazar’s attorney at the preliminary hearing, the detective acknowledged that when asked why he had shot the deputy, Salazar responded that it had “started a long time ago before COVID” and that he “began to hear voices in his head.”
During the sanity phase of the trial, the defense wants to call three mental health professionals who examined and interviewed Salazar and listened to statements he made to law enforcement after his arrest and during an undercover jailhouse operation and then concluded that the defendant was legally insane at the time of the offense, Rosenstock indicated in court papers.
“Defense also intends to call family members personally familiar with the defendant’s psychiatric history of multiple admissions to psychiatric facilities,” the attorney wrote.
Investigators didn’t initially know who had shot and killed the 30-year-old sheriff’s deputy, but used surveillance video footage to identify a vehicle believed to be a Toyota Corolla and then to ask the public to come forward with any information about the vehicle, prosecutors said.
Ayvazian said Monday that among those who contacted investigators was a motorist who testified that he took a photo of the license plate of a vehicle whose driver had aggressively confronted him about seven minutes before authorities believe Clinkunbroomer was shot.
Syed Alam identified Salazar in court during the 2024 hearing as that driver.
Authorities used the license plate number shown in the photo taken by Alam and determined that someone living at Salazar’s house had a registered .22-caliber firearm, with detectives subsequently getting an arrest warrant for Salazar and a search warrant for his home, where a .22-caliber revolver was discovered, evidence at the preliminary hearing showed.
The wounded deputy — a fourth-generation sheriff’s deputy who had become engaged to be married four days before he was killed — was rushed to Antelope Valley Medical Center in grave condition and was pronounced dead that night.
A deputy medical examiner concluded Clinkunbroomer died from a single gunshot that entered the back of his head.
The slain deputy was honored in January with the Castaic Sports Complex being renamed the Ryan M. Clinkunbroomer Castaic Sports Complex.