Sheriff's deputy shot to death guarded highly dangerous inmates

A Los Angeles County sheriff's deputy gunned down Saturday outside his boyhood home in Cypress Park had been assigned to guard the most dangerous inmates in the county, including members of the notorious Mexican Mafia gang, authorities said Sunday.

Los Angeles police and sheriff's officials said the prospect that Deputy Juan Abel Escalante was killed because of his work at the jail remained one of three possible motives. Investigators were also considering the possibility that neighborhood gang violence or a personal grudge were behind the killing, report Stuart Pfeifer and Tami Abdollah.

Detectives from LAPD's robbery-homicide division were investigating the killing with the assistance of detectives from the sheriff's homicide division and the jail's gang unit. Sheriff Lee Baca said Escalante's assignment put him in touch with members of the Mexican Mafia, a gang known to direct street crime and violence from behind prison walls.

Read on about the case of Juan Abel Escalante here.

-- Deborah Bonello in Mexico City

Photo: Juan Abel Escalante, 27, a Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy, was a father of three with more than two years' service in the department. He was a military veteran who a neighbor said served in Iraq.

Comments

[Jeff Davis]

I thought foreigners who were convicted of crimes here in U.S. could be sent back to where they came from?

[Southoc]

Very sad, I hope htey catch whom ever is responisble for this.

[erica]

whats happening to this world? this man was shot 11 blocks away from my home since birth. he had kids and everything. why him? why anyone? just hearing about this made me cry. deputy juan abel escelante made it through his childhood and made somethign of himself just to have it taken away by worthless thugs. my condolences to all he left behind.