Tipsters To Split $100K Reward In Ambush Shooting Of 2 LA County Deputies

LOS ANGELES, CA — The county Board of Supervisors Tuesday approved the distribution of $100,000 in reward money to two people who provided information that led to the arrest and conviction of a man for the ambush shooting of two sheriff's deputies who were sitting in a patrol vehicle at a Compton transit center.

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 shooting during a 2020 crime spree. The Sept. 12, 2020, shooting seriously injured Deputies Claudia Apolinar and Emmanuel Perez-Perez.

Prosecutors said Murray "lost it" and "sought to take out revenge" after sheriff's deputies shot and killed his best friend, Sam Herrera, while serving a search warrant in Compton on Sept. 10, 2020, two days before Apolinar and Perez-Perez were ambushed.

Surveillance video showed the gunman walking up to the passenger side of the sheriff's vehicle, firing and then quickly leaving, and Apolinar subsequently coming to her partner's aid followed by the two — both of their uniforms stained with blood — hurrying to a waiting patrol vehicle that rushed them to a hospital.

She said she later learned that one round struck her in the jaw and "nearly cut my tongue off" and that she also suffered gunshot wounds to both of her arms, which were broken in the shooting. The deputy said she still has scars on both of her arms and her face from the attack.

Apolinar's partner was shot in the forehead and an arm.

The Board of Supervisors at the time offered a $100,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the gunman in the attack.

According to a report set to be reviewed by the board Tuesday, after the reward was offered in 2020, "two witnesses came forward that provided vital information that subsequently led to the apprehension and conviction of the suspect."

Both witnesses filed claims for the reward money, and a panel of county officials reviewed the claims and determined one of the witnesses should receive 90% of the reward and the other 10%, "reflecting the respective impact of their testimony on the case."

The names of the reward claimants were not released, nor were any details about the type of information each provided to investigators.

Murray was sentenced in 2023 to 166 years and eight months to life in prison. He was re-sentenced earlier this year to 164 years to life, following an appellate court decision reversing his conviction on two lesser charges of being a felon in possession of a firearm.

City News Service