Police1.com Critical Alert - LE News (CA)
Police and volunteers are searching the Mojave Desert for the person who killed a Los Angles County sheriff’s deputy and for a possible witness to the shooting. Deputy Stephen Sorensen, 46, was killed Saturday while following up on a trespassing call in Llano, about 40 miles northeast of downtown Los Angeles. Authorities also were seeking Donald Charles Kueck, 52, of Llano, whose car was found 2 1/2 miles from the crime scene.
Sorensen’s patrol car was found along with bloodstains and other signs of a struggle, authorities said. Sorensen’s body was discovered less than a quarter-mile away, shot in the upper torso with a large-caliber, semiautomatic rifle. His handgun was missing, officials said. Investigators found chemicals “consistent with manufacturing methamphetamine” in the area, Deputy Darren Harris said. No arrests were made and no weapons were found.
While officials stopped short of calling 52-year-old Donald Charles Kueck (pictured right) a suspect, a sheriff’s spokesman said investigators have uncovered evidence that a car registered to Kueck was used in the crime and said that he “may be considered armed and dangerous.”
Sheriff’s officials on Sunday are seeking help in locating Kueck, who lives in Llano, a short distance from where Deputy Stephen Sorensen’s body was found Saturday afternoon. “It is believed that Kueck may have information concerning the murder of Deputy Sorensen,” according to a Sheriff’s Department press release. “Kueck resides in the area near where Deputy Sorensen’s body was found and may have witnessed the shooting.”
Sorensen, an Army veteran and former lifeguard, was the resident deputy for the rural Lake Los Angeles area, about 80 miles northeast of downtown Los Angeles. His 150-square-mile beat included several sparsely populated communities on the edge of the Mojave Desert. Sorensen was the only full-time deputy in the area, and had worked there for 12 years. “He was the original beat cop. He walked the beat and everybody knew him,” sheriff’s Capt. Carl Deeley said. “If a kid was truant, he knew where that kid was and where he was supposed to be.”
Any information should be directed to the LA County Sheriff’s Dept.
Source: Member Submission; AP