Off-Duty Deputy Fatally Shoots Robbery Suspect

An off-duty Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy shot and killed one of two men who tried to rob him early Sunday in North Hollywood, police said.

The unidentified deputy was walking in the 13000 block of Sherman Way when two men approached him and demanded money at gunpoint, Los Angeles police said.

The 29-year-old deputy pulled out his own gun and shot one of the men. As he was running away, the other suspect fired at the deputy but did not hit him, police said.

The identity of the 27-year-old dead man was not released pending notification of relatives.

Arrested on suspicion of murder was Cesar Ceballos, 21, of North Hollywood. He had tried to blend in with a crowd that gathered at the shooting scene, said Lt. Anthony Alba, an LAPD spokesman.

Los Angeles County Sheriff Department officials refused to release the deputy’s name. They said he is a three-year veteran assigned to the Mira Loma jail in north Los Angeles County.

The scene of the shooting is a commercial stretch of Sherman Way between Ethel Avenue and Coldwater Canyon Avenue. The deputy was walking west on the south side of the street about 3:30 a.m. when the pair confronted him, Alba said.

After the shooting, the deputy, who was uninjured, ran to a nearby home and called police. Investigators took a group of bystanders to the LAPD’s North Hollywood station. Among them was Ceballos, and during their interviews investigators came to believe he was the other attempted robbery suspect, Alba said.