Sources: Suspect in fatal shootout at Central Calif. mobile home was named in search warrants

Sources name suspect in fatal CA shootout

FRESNO, Calif. — A law enforcement source says investigators believe the suspect in a shootout that killed a Central California sheriff’s deputy is the same man named in a search warrant being served when the gunbattle began.

Law enforcement sources on Friday identified the man as Ricky Ray Liles, an unemployed security guard who also died in the incident.

The warrant involved a series of arsons in the area and reports of random gunshots being fired from the home.

The sources spoke on the condition of anonymity because they aren’t authorized to speak about the investigation.

Property records show the 51-year-old Liles has lived at the home for at least three years.

Another deputy and a police officer were injured in the shooting.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP’s earlier story is below.

FRESNO, Calif. (AP) — The sheriff’s homicide detective killed in a shootout while serving a search warrant at a mobile home was identified Friday as a 12-year veteran of the department and the father of two children.

Joel Wahlenmaier, 49, who is married, was with another deputy and a fire department arson investigator when the suspect in their case opened fire Thursday from his mobile home 25 miles west of Fresno, Sheriff Margaret Mims said.

The suspect, who has not been identified, also was killed.

Police Officer Javier Bejar was critically wounded when he arrived for backup. Authorities said he’s not expected to recover.

Deputy Mark Harris was wounded and is recovering, Mims said.

The incident began when the gunman opened fire on authorities who tried to serve search the warrants in Central California then barricaded himself in the mobile home during a raging gunbattle.

Police were trying to determine how the routine serving of a search warrant turned into a deadly daylong standoff.

It was not immediately clear if the gunman’s injuries were self-inflicted or suffered during the barrage of bullets he exchanged with officers, Fresno Police Chief Jerry Dyer said.

Reedley City Manager Rocky Rogers said Bejar, who had two years on the police force, was being kept alive so his family can pay their last respects.

“He had a very commanding presence about him, being a former U.S. Marine,” Rogers said.

Police used a robot equipped with cameras to confirm the suspect’s death following the tense, daylong standoff outside the home in Minkler, a tiny village in a rural section of the San Joaquin Valley.

About an hour before the robot was sent in, a woman who was inside the home voluntarily came out with a dog spattered in blood. Her relationship to the gunman was not immediately known and detectives were interviewing her.

The bloodshed started just before 10 a.m. when two deputies and a state fire official arrived at the mobile home to serve the warrants connected to a series of arsons and a Tuesday shooting allegedly involving the gunman, Mims said.

Mims said the shooter was suspected in a recent series of suspicious fires involving sheds and other outbuildings and of randomly firing a weapon from his home on Tuesday.

Novack said authorities used a loudspeaker to repeatedly order someone inside the mobile home to surrender. At some point, they smashed down the door and went inside.

Novack said a man and a woman lived in the mobile home located on sprawling rural property owned by another family in Minkler. They sometimes came to her store for cigarettes and soda, but Novack said she did not know their names.

The community of 30 people is located along the scenic highway to Kings Canyon National Park.

Associated Press Writer Garance Burke in Fresno contributed to this report.