Associated Press
UPDATE 4:59 p.m. (PST):
Yuba County Sheriff Steven Durfor says the suspect in the shooting of two California deputies was found dead inside a home.
Durfor says it appears the suspect was killed when the deputies returned gunfire but that an autopsy will determine how he died.
He says he does not know the name of the man who barricaded himself inside a rural home.
Durfor says the two deputies shot were airlifted to a hospital and arrived “conscious, talkative and stable.”
Authorities say the deputies were responding to reports of an armed and agitated man pulling up plants in the garden of a rural Rastafarian church about 55 miles north of Sacramento.
Original story below.
DOBBINS, Calif. — Two California sheriff’s deputies were shot and wounded Tuesday after they responded to reports of an armed and agitated man pulling up plants in the garden of a rural Rastafarian church, authorities said.
The shooter remained at large, and the Yuba County deputies were in serious condition and undergoing surgery at Sutter Roseville Medical Center after the shooting in the rural community of Oregon House about 55 miles north of Sacramento.
A 911 caller from the church in remote Dobbins reported one of its members was acting erratically and police assistance was required, Yuba County spokeswoman Leslie Carbagh said.
Deputies and a man exchanged shots upon their arrival, Carbagh said. Police are searching the area for the shooter.
Karen Hisken, who runs an equestrian facility near the scene, said she could see police action from her yard but had not been asked to evacuate. Hisken has lived in the area since 1988 and said she is not familiar with any type of Rastafarian church.
Yuba County Sheriff’s declined to release the names of the two deputies. The shooter’s name is unknown, Carbagh said.
The 911 caller didn’t identify the type of plants the shooter was said to be pulling up or the name of the church, Carbagh said.
The shooting occurred a day after two police officers were shot and wounded nearly 200 miles south in the central California city of Los Banos during a struggle with a man who broke into his estranged wife’s apartment. Police fatally shot that shooter.