A suspect has been arrested in the ambush shooting that left two Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department deputies severely wounded earlier this month, authorities said on Wednesday.
Authorities identified the suspect as 36-year-old Deonte Murray, ABC News reports.
Murray has been in custody since Sept. 15, when he was arrested following an alleged carjacking and a 10-hour standoff with police in the Lynwood section of Los Angeles, sheriff's officials said. But when he was arrested, sheriff's officials told reporters that Murray was not the suspect in the shooting of the deputies and that the search for that gunman, which prompted a reward that soared to $675,000 with private donations, was ongoing.
During a news conference on Wednesday, sheriff's officials faced numerous questions about why they initially ruled out Murray as the ambush suspect. Officials claimed that at the time of Murray's arrest they didn't know for sure he was the alleged gunman.
The ambush occurred on Sept. 12 as the two deputies, whose names have not been released by the sheriff's department, sat in a marked patrol vehicle near the Martin Luther King Jr. Transit Center in Compton. A man walked up on the vehicle and opened fire into the passenger side window, critcally wounding both deputies.
Both deputies were taken to St. Francis Medical Center, where they underwent surgery. They've since been released but are facing long rehabilitation periods, officials said.
Officials have not commented on Murray's motive for the alleged ambush "beyond the fact that he hates policemen and wants them dead," said Kent Wegener, captain of the LA Sheriff's Homicide Bureau.
