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Subscribe to RSSIn California, one of the two veteran San Diego deputies wounded in a gun battle is recovering after being shot by a suspect accused of possessing child porn. KNSD's Tony Shin reports.
One of two veterans in the San Diego Sheriff's Department injured in a gun battle in Lakeside, Calif., is in critical condition, law enforcement sources said Tuesday night.
Detective Ali Perez and Sgt. Craig Johnson were reportedly shot and injured by Daniel Witczak after confronting him Tuesday afternoon in a Lakeside apartment complex, sheriff's department authorities said.
For more visit NBCSanDiego.com.
Witzcak, 30, was confronted by the deputies for allegedly keeping pornographic images of his girlfriend's children on his cell phone with the intention of selling them, according to his girlfriend.
Perez was in critical but stable condition Tuesday night, sources told NBC San Diego. He was shot at least twice with a high-powered gun, including once in the stomach.
Johnson was shot in the arm and is expected to recover.
Confronted about child porn, man shoots two deputies in San Diego County
Lt. Duncan Fraser from the sheriff's department said both endured hours of surgery after being transported to the hospital.
“It’s too early to tell," Sheriff Bill Gore said of the deputies' condition, "but any time you have major gunshot trauma, there’s great cause for concern.”
NBC San Diego
A shooting victim arrives at the hospital following a gun battle in San Deigo, Calif.
Detective Perez is an 18-year veteran with the department who is assigned to the Child Abuse Unit. Sgt. Johnson is a 23-year veteran with the department who is assigned to the Santee station.
Fraser said he knows Perez well, and that for him to be assigned to the Child Abuse Unit demonstrates that he's "a good detective and has the ability to do a good, thorough investigation."
Perez was one of the deputies who found 15-year-old Charles Andrew Williams, the suspect in the Santana High School shooting of 2001.
The entire sheriff’s homicide detail was at the scene of the shooting investigating and canvassing the area, Fraser said. They secured a warrant to investigate the residence early Tuesday evening.
One of the deputies is married to an employee with the San Diego Police Department, SDPD Chief Bill Lansdowne said.
"This is a very difficult day for the San Diego County Sheriff's Department and everyone in law enforcement," Gore said to reporters after one of the deputies had just gotten out of surgery. "It’s a constant reminder of what our law enforcement officers in this country face every day."
Witczak was taken to Scripps Mercy Hospital, according to a hospital source. There is no word yet on his condition.
The girlfriend told NBC San Diego that she was getting her two daughters ready for school when she found pornographic pictures of her boyfriend and her two daughters engaged in sex acts on his cell phone. Her boyfriend told her that he planned to sell the photos for $50,000 to a child porn site.
The woman said that after the deputies stormed the apartment, her boyfriend shot the two deputies with a high-powered rifle and then shot himself.
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Leave a Comment:
got to wonder why this went down as it did , we all want to catch the evil doers and rescue the victims . perhaps though this subject could have been taken into custody without all of the gunfire , maybe while taking out the trash or something ? hopefully the officers involved will be able to recover and the taxpayers will be able to keep this dirtbag locked up for a very long time .
Totally agree Mercenary. I hope valuable lessons were learned by LE so something like this doesn't happen again. Great sympathy for the officers and their families.
Yes they could have...If the suspect did not have a firearm. EVERY incident can always go down a different way. Unfortunately life doesn't give any retakes as in the movies.
shouda.couda,woulda, everyone has 20/20 hindsight............
Two birds with one stone, a child molester and police, the two worst people on earth. Both think they can do whatever they want to other people without caring about what they are doing to them. I've been arrested by california police for something I never did, tried to explain it and the detective said "I don't want to hear about that". Only looked for evidence to convict me and never looked for the truth. And the justice system is cash strapped in california so they automatically charge you with the highest thing possible to extort you into a plea deal. I would have had to pay tens of thousands in legal fees and take the slight risk of being convicted of a felony or plea to misdemeanors I didn't do. God Bless America!!!!
That is sad but very, very true. I know a couple of people who were accused of stuff they did not do and the cops, DA dont want to hear @!$%# about being not guilty. They just try to convict you. They go far to try to put enough "Evidence" to convict you. So much for being innocent until proven guilty. In this country your GUILTY first and have to prove your innocent.
And the police have lost thier damn minds. shooting people and claiming "i feared for my life so i had to shoot the guy 41 times"
Yeah. Those cops should have been smarter. The might have wanted to investigate further when the wife said, "He's inside, with one hand on the keyboard and the other hand on his gun."
What a douche bag.
nope a douche bag serves a purpose, he don't................................:)
It's nice to hear that a woman put her children before her boyfriend. So many of these stories expose a pathetic desperate "mother" who will sacrifice her little ones to avoid being alone. This woman did the only thing a real mom would do, and it probably never occured to her that it would end like this.
Best wishes to the officers, and worst wishes to the freak.
refreshing isnt it.
good post, machspeed. agreed.
Really?? I would say " Put her children in danger with her boyfriend "
William, get a grip on something good coming of this. As Mad Dog from Kelly's Heroes said "... what's with da negative waves...".
Hope the perp dies a nice slow, agonizing death.
why? you got the perp. so why are they canvassing anything? and even then.. the entire homicide div? get that many P.O.'d trigger happy cops in one place for no apparent reason it cant be good.dont think i would wanna live nearby.
You must be worried that they will find YOUR collection.
R,
explain it, why do they need to canvas? more freaks there perhaps, or just a knee jerk over their fellow officers?
and the only things i collect are coffee cups...., oh and dumba$$ comments from the peanut gallery we call the vine.
I live in the area and trust me Tramp...... every cop in town was there yesterday. They had a freeway that was a block away from the shooting closed down for hours. Swat was there with all of their new high tech toys. People said they saw police cars speeding out of downtown San Diego, which is about 20 miles away. It was complete overkill. The suspect was down..... what a waste of time and city resources.
just an observation TRAMP....at some point there is probably going to be a trial of some kind, whether it is for the child porn or the shooting. If I understand the trial process correctly, a jury actally expects to see that the cops did an investigation, interviewed victims, canvassed for and interviewed possible witnesses, searched for evidence, processed crime scenes and interviewed suspects. I would guess that since this happened in an apartment complex in the middle of the day...there were probably several area residents that may have seen the shooting and know what happened...there might also be some residents that have witnessed inappropriate behavior of the suspect with other children. So it would make sense to me....and I'm not the sharpest tool in the shed by any means, that it might require several officers to secure the scene, canvas for possible witnesses, locate possible evidence and process the crime scene. Having 3 people shot at a scene might....just might require more than 2 or 3 investigators to handle the incident. I'm just saying.....
wanna save a few bucks CA? i will do the medical work on this guy for free, just wheel him out on the roof and i will be right over.
did anyone ask the girlfriend if the suspect had access to weapons prior to making contact with him?
evidently not. although its a standard question around here.
Strange that you mention that. Several years ago, a 911 operator asked a woman the same question when she called them to have her son removed. The woman replied that there were weapons in the house but the son was not threatening her with them. The 911 operator forgot to pass this info on and shortly afterwards, three police officers were dead and two injured.
yep, here they hire 12 buck an hour operators, sometimes they pass on info to the cops, sometimes the suspect, sad but true. watched it in action a couple times.
gm IA. This sorry event happened in Pittsburgh, 2009. Here is what the operators make there.
http://911operatorsalary.com/PA/Pittsburgh/salary/911-Operator-Salary
mornin chefaz
Lot of screwy news on here today, and so far this week for that matter.
Peek-a-boom!
funny....wrong mind ya....but still funny.....................:)
you may have a cookie..........
Thanks for the cookie. :)
You have to assume that there will firearms involved with any child porn subject. Adam Mayes was armed. Josh Powell killed his children with an axe after they found illegal images on his computer.
That means you don't take the children back to the house for a situation that may very likely involve firearms, because these people obviously lack judgement and empathy.
You can't assume that they are going to go quietly.
ie. You go in with the SWAT team. Body armor. etc.
How exactly is a search of his cell phone part of "getting her two daughters ready for school"??
Obviously she had some suspicions about him.
May very well be an act of divine inspiration to protect her daughters.
I thought about abandoning my faith a few years back and going back to the lifestyle in lived in college and as a new recruit in the Coast Guard, before I could go back to my pre-baptism standards a movie came out about my former career as a swimmer in the Coast Guard called The Guardian. That movie and movie trailer advertisement kept me from doing that.
You'd be surprised how well each of our individual lives are kept track of.
If we're lucky the pedophile will succum to his self inflicted wounds, and the taxpayers won't have to pay tens of thousands of dollars every year to keep him locked up. The world is better off without people like him anyway.
damn, where am i going to get my kiddie porn now?
mysterious stranger 1
some things are funny, even funnier when the police come knocking at your door with lots of questions, based on your posted remark. Besides, there is nothing remotely funny about
where am you going to get my kiddie porn now?
Maybe Mr stranger we can get your ISP address since you sound like a pedophile yourself.Would be nice to see you locked up.Of course the best part of you probably ran down your fathers leg anyway.
Mysterious Stranger is that comment your pathetic attempt at trying to be funny? If it was it was an EPIC FAIL!!!!! Maybe Leno should book you on his show for comic relief. NOT!!!
Certainly not right but guess this guy was serious about his kiddy porn!
A child abuser and pedophile turns the gun on himself.Lets hope this piece of vermin does not survive and this will save the taxpayers money .Who wants to support, feed and house this type of individual anyway.
To bad this pedofile couldn't have turned the gun on himself first and saved money for trials and hospitals and heartache for all involved.