Los Angeles County is handing out $100,000 to two witnesses whose information helped convict the man who ambushed two sheriff’s deputies at a Compton transit station in 2020. The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors approved splitting the reward 90-10 between the pair, whose identities remain confidential, after a county panel determined one witness’s testimony had a greater impact on the case than the other’s.
The ambush happened on September 12, 2020, when a gunman walked up to the passenger side of a sheriff’s vehicle parked at the Compton transit center and opened fire before fleeing, according to surveillance video. Deputy Claudia Apolinar suffered a gunshot wound to her jaw and wounds to both arms that left them broken, and she has said one round nearly severed her tongue. Deputy Emmanuel Perez-Perez was shot in the forehead and an arm, per KOST 103.5.
Deonte Lee Murray, now 42, was convicted in 2023 of multiple felonies, including two counts of attempted murder of a peace officer, for carrying out the ambush during a crime spree that terrorized Los Angeles County that September. Prosecutors said Murray was seeking revenge after sheriff’s deputies shot and killed his best friend, Sam Herrera, while serving a search warrant in Compton on September 10, 2020.
A Crime Spree That Spiraled in Days
Murray’s rampage began on September 1, 2020, when he shot a man in the leg with a rifle and carjacked a black Mercedes-Benz, the same vehicle he later drove to a courthouse shooting, according to AP News. Two days before the deputy ambush, on September 10, Murray fired an assault rifle into an SUV outside the Compton Courthouse, wounding a civilian who was attending a Zoom meeting and whom Murray mistakenly believed was an undercover detective, as reported by Police1. He targeted the courthouse after learning deputies had killed Herrera earlier that same day…