Measures aim at safety concerns as cases are pending around deputy deaths
The L.A. County Board of Supervisors honored Deputy Ryan M. Clinkunbroomer in perpetuity Tuesday with the renaming of the Castaic Sports Complex in his honor, amid lawsuits and continuing efforts to address concerns surrounding several local deaths connected to the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department.
LASD officials wrote in an email Wednesday that there have been several measures taken to address potential concerns regarding its staffing shortages.
Clinkunbroomer, a Castaic resident, was shot and killed Sept. 16, 2023, while on duty as a Palmdale Sheriff’s Station deputy, not far from the station’s parking lot.
Kevin Cataneo Salazar is awaiting a murder trial for his alleged role in the shooting.
Since the shooting, Clinkunbroomer’s family, which notes Clinkunbroomer is a third-generation deputy, is one of many that have expressed concerns over staffing shortages that have left the agency short about one-third of its traditional force.
They felt there were more significant factors at play in Ryan Clinkunbroomer’s shooting death, according to an unsuccessful lawsuit filed against the county and the department after the shooting.
In a wrongful death lawsuit against L.A. County and the LASD, the Clinkunbroomers claimed a “state-created hazard” was responsible for the shooting.
The family, represented by Brad Gage, argued that Clinkunbroomer’s response was hindered by the fact that he worked an average of more than 100 hours of overtime a month in the months leading up to his death.
The significant workload left him unable to properly respond when Salazar drove up and fired a .22-caliber handgun at Clinkunbroomer once, fatally striking him in the back of the head, according to the complaint originally filed in April 2024.
In his complaint, Gage presented studies on the impacts of working so many hours that compared the effects of so much overtime to the effects of mild alcohol impairment at a blood-alcohol percentage of .05.
Gage did not respond to a request for comment for this story.
Sheriff’s Department officials wrote Wednesday the department “stands firm in terms of creating an environment focused on safety and well-being for all employees.”
To address the shortages, the Sheriff’s Department put an immediate moratorium on all new contracts that request additional sworn personnel, according to an email Wednesday from the Sheriff’s Information Bureau.
“This action is being taken to ensure we are not placing further demands on an already overburdened workforce and to prioritize the well-being and effectiveness of our existing personnel,” according to the email.
“The department is also actively assessing ways to restructure staffing and re-prioritize certain responsibilities to reduce mandatory overtime,” the statement read. “We are actively recruiting and are funded for eight academy classes this fiscal year.”
The recruiting efforts, which have included a contracted public relations firm, have brought about a 36% increase in the number of applicants. The agency’s Getting Recruits into Training program has boosted recruit graduation rate by 18%, according to the Sheriff’s Information Bureau.
Judge Lynne Hobbs ultimately found for the county and the Sheriff’s Department in the Clinkunbroomer suit in April.
Hobbs ruled the family’s claim was rooted in the due-process clause of the 14th Amendment, which allows a claim, “‘When a public official affirmatively places a particular individual in a position of danger the individual would not otherwise have faced,’ and injury results,” according to her analysis.
Three elements are required: an entity’s acts created an increased danger; the entity failed to protect against the danger; and the conduct in question “shocks the conscience,” according to the ruling.
Hobbs felt the arguments failed to overcome the qualified immunity that protects government officials performing discretionary functions.
There was no compensation awarded to the family in the case.
There are two other recent deaths involving deputies who either lived or served in the Santa Clarita Valley that could have impacts on the department.
San Francisquito crash
Deputy Daniel Chavira, who also came from a family of sheriff’s deputies, died while heading home from Pitchess Detention Center in May after a double shift, according to a Sheriff’s Department source.
Speculation began shortly after his shift that his long hours might have played a role in what was described as a head-on collision.
The subsequent California Highway Patrol investigation raised questions regarding whether other vehicles may have also been at fault in the collision.
The official cause is expected to be in the pending CHP investigation into the crash.
“That report is under review, has not been signed off yet,” according to Officer Carlos Burgos-Lopez of the Newhall-area Office for the CHP, regarding the investigation into Chavira’s fatal crash.
L.A. County and Sheriff’s Department officials did not have any record of a complaint in the death of Deputy Daniel Chavira as of this story’s publication. The filing of a formal complaint against a government agency is a required step before a lawsuit in California.
Gun-range incident
The family of Deputy Alfredo “Freddy” Flores is still suing the LASD and the manufacturer of its gun range over Flores’ death, which was caused by an incident at the Pitchess Detention Center in Castaic less than a month after Clinkunbroomer’s shooting. The incident also left a second deputy severely injured.
The Flores family alleges the trailer, manufactured by Inveris Training Solutions and operated by the Sheriff’s Department, ignited due to an accumulation of unburned gunpowder residue, lead particles and other flammable materials, according to its ongoing lawsuit.
After enduring third-degree burns across much of his body in the Oct. 10, 2023, incident, Flores died from his injuries on April 20, 2024.
In the Flores lawsuit, the family’s attorney, Carlos Hernandez with Carpenter & Zuckerman, claimed L.A. County should have known of the dangers due to past violations from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
“Despite this knowledge, the county continued to send deputies into what was essentially a powder keg,” Hernandez wrote in an emailed statement. “That deliberate indifference to known hazards cost Deputy Flores his life. Our goal in this lawsuit is to hold all responsible parties accountable and to ensure these unsafe ranges are never used again, so no other family endures this kind of tragedy.”
Court records indicate the case is due back at L.A. County Superior Court in Chatsworth in November for another hearing.