Jury convicts Palmdale man of murdering sheriff's deputy in 2023 ambush shooting

A Los Angeles jury on Monday found Kevin Eduardo Cataneo Salazar guilty of first-degree murder for the September 2023 killing of Los Angeles County Sheriff's Deputy Ryan Clinkunbroomer, who was shot in the head while stopped at a red light near the department's Palmdale station. Jurors also found true every special-circumstance allegation attached to the charge, including murder of a peace officer and lying in wait, findings that expose Salazar to a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole.

The panel, sitting in a downtown Los Angeles courtroom, deliberated for roughly two hours before returning the verdict, according to reporting from ABC7 Los Angeles. Sheriff Robert Luna and District Attorney Nathan Hochman were both present for the reading of the verdict, seated near Clinkunbroomer's parents in a packed gallery.

The numbers

Clinkunbroomer was 30 years old, an eight-year veteran of the department and a field training officer, when he was killed on September 16, 2023, four days after he had gotten engaged. He was found unresponsive in his patrol car near the intersection of Sierra Highway and Avenue Q, just outside the station where he worked, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department's own account of the case posted on its department website. Investigators say he never had a chance to draw his weapon.

Salazar, now 32, was arrested two days after the shooting following an hours-long standoff at his Palmdale home, where deputies recovered multiple firearms and the vehicle investigators had identified as being involved in the attack. Jurors this week found that he personally used and discharged a .22-caliber revolver and that the shooting was carried out from a vehicle, one of the special-circumstance findings that qualifies the case for the harshest sentence available under California law short of death, which prosecutors did not seek.

How the case unfolded

Then-District Attorney George Gascón filed murder charges against Salazar within days of the arrest, describing the shooting as a targeted, unprovoked attack on a uniformed deputy carrying out his duties, according to the charging announcement posted by the County of Los Angeles. California Attorney General Rob Bonta's office issued a statement of condolence in the days after the killing, calling it a devastating loss for the law enforcement community statewide.

Salazar's defense did not dispute that he fired the shot that killed Clinkunbroomer. Instead, his attorneys entered a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity, arguing he suffers from schizophrenia and other serious mental illness that his family says predated the shooting by years. That plea split the trial into two phases: a guilt phase, which concluded Monday with the murder conviction, and a sanity phase, in which the same jury must decide whether Salazar understood the nature of his actions and knew they were wrong at the time he pulled the trigger.

The case had moved slowly through the Los Angeles County court system for nearly three years, delayed in part by competency proceedings and psychiatric evaluations before it reached trial this summer, according to coverage of the case's progress from MyNewsLA, which has tracked the proceedings from arraignment through verdict.

Who is affected

The verdict closes a chapter for a sheriff's department that has spent nearly three years marking the anniversary of one of its own killed in what officials have repeatedly described as an ambush. Clinkunbroomer's parents attended Monday's hearing, as they have throughout the trial, and colleagues from the Palmdale station, which patrols one of the largest and busiest patrol areas in the county, were also present in the courtroom.

The Antelope Valley community where Clinkunbroomer worked has followed the case closely since 2023, when the shooting prompted an intensive multi-agency search and briefly heightened security around sheriff's facilities across the region. His death also became a rallying point for law enforcement advocacy groups pressing for tougher penalties in killings of on-duty officers.

Reaction

"This brutal and senseless murder took the life of a dedicated deputy, leaving his family, colleagues and community to endure an unimaginable loss. We hope today's guilty verdict brings a measure of healing to Deputy Clinkunbroomer's family and loved ones. While the trial now moves to the sanity phase, this verdict is an important step toward justice and accountability."

That statement from District Attorney Hochman was echoed by Sheriff Luna, who told reporters outside the courtroom that "while nothing can bring Ryan back to his family, his loved ones or our department family, we hope this verdict brings a sense of peace and closure to those who loved him and served alongside him," according to accounts of the hearing carried by NBC Los Angeles. Luna added that the department would "forever honor his service, his sacrifice and the badge he proudly wore."

Defense attorneys have not publicly commented on the guilt-phase verdict, and it remains unclear whether they intend to appeal any portion of the finding once the trial concludes.

What happens next

Jurors are due back in court Wednesday to begin the sanity phase, weighing psychiatric testimony to determine whether Salazar was legally sane at the time of the killing. If jurors find he was sane, he faces a sentence of life in prison without parole under the special-circumstance findings already returned. If they find he was legally insane, Salazar would instead be committed to a state psychiatric hospital rather than sentenced to prison, an outcome that would not affect the underlying murder conviction but would change how and where he is confined.

Either outcome is expected to reopen public debate in Los Angeles County over how the criminal justice system handles defendants with documented severe mental illness accused of violent crimes against law enforcement, an issue that has surfaced repeatedly in California courts in recent years. A ruling on Salazar's sanity, and any subsequent sentencing hearing, is expected in the coming weeks.