Fate of defendant in killing of Antelope Valley deputy is in jury’s hands

By TERRI VERMEULEN KEITH | City News Service

Jurors on Thursday were handed the case against a man who allegedly pulled up next to a Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy in Palmdale and shot him in broad daylight nearly three years ago.

In his closing argument, Deputy District Attorney Michael Blake told the downtown Los Angeles jury that Kevin Eduardo Cataneo Salazar made “a clear and deliberate decision to kill” sheriff’s Deputy Ryan Clinkunbroomer in a “surprise attack” while the law enforcement officer was stopped at a red light near the Palmdale Sheriff’s Station on Sept. 16, 2023.

Defense attorney George Rosenstock countered that his client’s thoughts appear to be “somewhat disorganized” and that the decision to kill was made within seconds. He argued that the panel should reject the allegations of premeditated and deliberated murder and lying in wait.

Jurors spent about 40 minutes discussing the case and are due back Monday to continue their deliberations.

Clinkunbroomer — a fourth-generation sheriff’s deputy who had become engaged to be married four days before he was killed — was shot in the back of the head while in a marked patrol SUV and rushed to Antelope Valley Medical Center in grave condition and was pronounced dead that night.

A contract forensic pathologist who performed the autopsy on the slain deputy testified Wednesday that the deputy would have had to have been right outside a hospital emergency room to survive the gunshot wound.

The murder charge against Salazar, now 32, includes the special circumstance allegations of murder of a peace officer, lying in wait and firing from a vehicle, along with allegations that he personally used and discharged a .22-caliber revolver.

The Palmdale resident entered a dual plea of not guilty and not guilty by reason of insanity in connection with the killing.

Salazar could face life in prison if he is convicted as charged and found sane. If he is determined to have been insane at the time of the killing, he would be confined to a state hospital rather than prison.

The defendant sat silently facing the judge and did not appear to have any response to the attorneys’ arguments.

The prosecutor told jurors that Salazar was initially following a Los Angeles County sheriff’s sergeant who wound up pulling into the sheriff’s station, but turned his attention to Clinkumbroomer and made a U-turn to follow him and stalk “his prey” as the 30-year-old deputy pulled his patrol SUV out of the station

The deputy district attorney described the defendant’s actions as “goal-directed,” saying that there was “no evidence that anything interfered with his ability to premeditate and deliberate,” and that paper targets subsequently recovered indicated that he had “obviously practiced” shooting at a target — in particular shooting at the head on the target.

Blake said Salazar was not happy with his life and blamed police.

Salazar’s attorney told the panel that his client’s thinking appeared not to be rooted in reality.

The defense lawyer noted that Salazar had discussed satellites and being electrocuted, but said his client’s grudge against police officers “doesn’t begin to constitute” a plan to actually kill one.

Rosenstock said “impulse is inconsistent with deliberation,” questioning the prosecution’s assertion that Salazar was capable of premeditation and deliberation.

“You can’t ignore what they haven’t proved,” he said of the prosecution’s case.

In his rebuttal argument, Deputy District Attorney David Ayvazian said, “He was lying in wait to kill a police officer, any police officer … He waited for an opportune time to act.”

The prosecutor noted that Salazar had told two undercover operatives in jail during a surreptitiously recorded conversation after his arrest that he had wanted to kill a police officer for years and described following officers, parking and waiting and playing music to prepare himself.

Salazar had also told the operatives that he had gone to a candlelight vigil at the station the night after the deputy’s killing, the prosecutor said, adding that it showed that Salazar was “enjoying the anonymity of what he’s done.”

Salazar has remained behind bars since his arrest on Sept. 18, 2023.

Investigators didn’t initially know who had shot and killed Clinkunbroomer, but they used surveillance video footage to identify a vehicle believed to be a Toyota Corolla and then asked the public to come forward with any information about the vehicle, prosecutors said.

Among those who contacted investigators was a motorist who testified that he took a photo of the license plate of a vehicle whose driver had aggressively confronted him about seven minutes before authorities believe Clinkunbroomer was shot. The motorist identified Salazar in court as that driver during a 2024 hearing.

Authorities used the license plate number shown in the photo taken by the motorist and determined that someone living at Salazar’s house had a registered .22-caliber firearm, with detectives subsequently getting an arrest warrant for Salazar and a search warrant for his home, where a .22-caliber revolver was discovered, according to evidence presented at the 2024 hearing.

At a June 2024 hearing in which Salazar was ordered to stand trial, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Homicide Detective Gustavo Carrillo testified that Salazar acknowledged his involvement in the shooting during questioning at the Palmdale Sheriff’s Station by detectives two days after the killing. Salazar told investigators that he felt bad and “cried for the (expletive) officer,” according to the detective.

Under cross-examination by Salazar’s attorney at the preliminary hearing, the detective acknowledged that when asked why he had shot the deputy, Salazar responded that it had “started a long time ago before COVID” and that he “began to hear voices in his head.”

In court papers filed recently, Salazar’s attorney wrote that his client was incapable of knowing or understanding the nature and quality of his act and/or could not distinguish right from wrong at the time due to his mental state.

During the sanity phase of the trial, the defense wants to call three mental health professionals who examined and interviewed Salazar and listened to statements he made to law enforcement after his arrest and during an undercover jailhouse operation and then concluded that the defendant was legally insane at the time of the offense, Rosenstock indicated in his court filing.

“Defense also intends to call family members personally familiar with the defendant’s psychiatric history of multiple admissions to psychiatric facilities,” the defense attorney added.

The slain deputy was honored in January with the Castaic Sports Complex being renamed the Ryan M. Clinkunbroomer Castaic Sports Complex.