A California teenager befriended a wounded suspected gunman and kept him calm until he was captured by Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies after gunning down one of their own, the teen’s mom said.
The Los Angeles Times reported that the unnamed Lancaster teenager and his sister were alone in their home Wednesday afternoon when the suspected shooter, Trenton Trevon Lovell, 27, got inside through a side door. Lovell was bloody and injured after a shooting with deputies that left Sgt. Steve Owen dead.
Owen and a second deputy responded shortly after noon to a burglary call at a Lancaster apartment complex when Owen, who arrived first and went around to the back of the residence, encountered Lovell. Sheriff Jim McDonnell told reporters on Thursday that Lovell was armed with a stolen handgun when he opened fire on the 53-year-old deputy.
After Owen was downed by the first shot, Lovell stood over his body and shot him four more times, McDonnell said. The sheriff characterized Owen's death as an execution, according to KTLA 5.
"This was an individual who was certainly the aggressor, someone who was truly a predator," McDonnell said.
The Times reported that a second deputy arrived on the scene, heard the shots and found Owen on the ground. He fired several shots at Lovell, who had run around to the front of the building and was trying to steal Owen's patrol car, according to the report.
Lovell, who was hit in the shoulder, backed the car into the second deputy’s vehicle, then jumped out of the car and fled on foot. That’s when he found refuge in the home occupied by the teen siblings.
The teens' mother told the Times that her 17-year-old son helped the wounded gunman, cleaning him up and giving him a fresh change of clothes. When Lovell did not leave their house, the woman's 19-year-old daughter faked a panic attack.
The boy told Lovell that he needed to get his sister’s medicine upstairs and, when he was out of sight of the gunman, texted his mother. The mother, who had left work and headed home when she heard about the shooting nearby, frantically located a deputy and told him where the suspect was.
"This guy killed a cop and he's thinking he doesn't care. He's done," the teens' mother said. "He killed a cop, why would he care about killing two kids?"
Deputies went to the home, where Lovell had been holed up for about an hour. Lovell, who saw them coming, climbed over a wall into another yard, but was captured.
Lovell has a "hot temper," and a history of violence, the Times reported. He has been arrested 11 times since his teen years and did two stints in state prison.
Residents of the apartment complex where Owen was killed said Lovell sometimes stayed there with his sister. His aunt, Deborah Matute, said he had also lived with her for a while because he needed a home where his parole officer could find him.
She asked him to leave in June after police showed up, wanting to search her apartment, she told the newspaper. She did not see him again until she saw his face on the news on Wednesday after the deputy’s slaying.
"I just couldn't believe it. I was shocked," Matute told the Times. "I'm sorry for the police officer's family. I'm sad for them."
Owen was a 29-year veteran of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, the newspaper reported. He was well-known in the community for his kindness, compassion and fairness.
He was awarded the department’s Metal of Valor in 2013 for his work in safely resolving a carjacking and kidnapping in which the suspect took a hostage. Owen was also one of three deputies who recently rescued a 13-month-old girl who was found, dehydrated and overheated, in a hot car this past summer.
In his spare time, he volunteered as a football coach and youth mentor, the Times said. He is survived by two sons, a stepdaughter and his wife, who is a Sheriff's Department detective.
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