PASO ROBLES, Calif. — A man believed to be responsible for shooting a California deputy in the head during an “ambush” attack was killed Thursday following separate shootouts that injured officers from three agencies, police said.
Mason James Lira, 26, a transient man who has battled a long history of mental illness, according to this family, was identified by San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office Wednesday and authorities’ search for him ended in a riverbed in the central California city of Paso Robles.
An Arroyo Grande police officer helping with the search was wounded when Lira engaged in a shootout about 3 p.m., police said.
When additional officers arrived at the scene, Lira again opened fire, wounding two of them, before he was shot while attempting to escape the riverbed toward the U.S. 101 highway, according to press release from the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Department. Consequently, he was pronounced dead at the scene.
The three injured officers were “in good condition,” San Luis Obispo County Sheriff Ian Parkinson said at a press conference on Thursday night.
Lira was arrested in late May for making terrorist threats in Monterey, California, Paso Robles Police Chief Ty Lewis said Thursday night, but authorities have not determined a motive for Wednesday’s shooting, USA Today reported.
But, Lewis said he believed it was a safe assumption that “homicide was on [Lira’s] mind.”
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