A handwritten note from a 9-year-old girl was among the items left at a memorial outside the Lancaster Sheriff's Station in honor of a sergeant shot and killed Wednesday after responding to a burglary.
Tearful residents visited the station, located in the high desert community north of Los Angeles, to remember Sgt. Steven Owen. The 53-year-old veteran of the department was shot and killed Wednesday afternoon while answering a burglary report.
There were candles, flags and flowers outside the place where he was known as a respected and compassionate member of the law enforcement community. The visitors included a 9-year-old girl who left a note of support for a grieving department.
"Thank you to all the police out there that risk their lives just for us," said Jordyn Fisher, whose mother joined her to pay their respects. "You were there when I needed you."
One man outside the sheriff's station said he was there to offer prayers for Owen, a 29-year veteran of the department who had arrested him several years ago, but who had since counseled him and was a father figure to him.
"He was like the father you never had, to the community," Bishop Vaughn said. "He cares. He doesn't attack, he cares."
Friend Buddy Turner said Owen had a big heart and thought of himself as someone who could make a difference in the community.
"It's not that he wanted to take everybody to jail, that wasn't his thing," said Turner. "He just wanted to make this valley a better place."
Sheriff Jim McDonnell cut short a trip to a conference in Hawaii to return to Los Angeles in light of Owen's death.
"The tragedy of a deputy sheriff such as Sergeant Steve Owen making the ultimate sacrifice has a massive impact on the whole law enforcement family," McDonnell said Wednesday.
Owen's mother, adult son and daughter and his wife, who is a detective in the Sheriff Department's Arson/Explosives Detail, were at his bedside when he died, according to the sheriff's department. Owen, who also is survived by another adult son, was a 29-year decorated veteran, authorities said.
RIP w/ Honor Sgt Steven C. Owen. #LASD will never forget, we will continue to carry on your legacy of public service https://t.co/ExY6egkiec pic.twitter.com/M3bR2bLLxO
— LA County Sheriff (@LASDHQ) October 6, 2016
The gunman, taken into custody after a manhunt and foot chase through a Lancaster neighborhood, was identified only as a parolee. He was hospitalized for treatment of a gunshot wound to his upper body, investigators said.
Owen was shot in the backyard at around 12:30 p.m. after he answered a report of a burglary in progress at an apartment building on West Avenue J-7. He was shot in the face with a large-caliber bullet that fragmented, said Mayor R. Rex Parris, who knew Owen for 10 years.
Investigators said another deputy in front heard gunfire, ran around the building and found Owen wounded. It wasn't immediately clear whether Owen managed to shoot back, sheriff's homicide Capt. Steven Katz said.
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The gunman was arrested after getting into Owen's patrol car, ramming a second police vehicle, then hiding in a home as two teenagers cowered, authorities said. The attacker was shot at twice, once as he tried to take the patrol car and again as he backed up and rammed a second patrol car, Katz said.
As deputies sealed off the neighborhood, the gunman ran to a house where a teenage boy and girl managed to hide and use a cellphone to text sheriff's deputies, authorities said. SWAT members entered the home to rescue the pair and the suspected gunman fled out the back door and was captured after climbing over a wall, officials said.
