Week-long manhunt underway in California following attacks

Over 100 law enforcement officials have been engaged in a week-long hunt for an unidentified gunman in central California. 

|
Casey Christie/The Bakersfield Californian via AP
In this Sunday, Aug. 2, 2015 photo, law enforcement officers meet near Weldon, Calif.

Authorities are searching a 5-square mile stretch of central California in what has become a weeklong manhunt for a gunman reportedly behind a killing, a kidnapping, and the wounding of two sheriff’s deputies.

Over 100 law enforcement officials have been surveying the desolate desert area on the ground and in helicopters in hopes of capturing the suspect.

"We're having to move very slowly and meticulously," said Kern County sheriff's spokesman Ray Pruitt. "This is a suspect we consider to be armed and very dangerous. He has shown he is not hesitant to engage law enforcement officers in a shootout."

The search began July 28 after three young men found a squatter in their remote cabin in Kern County who claimed they were on his property, reports the Los Angeles Times.  When one of the men said he was the owner, the squatter brandished a shotgun and threatened to kill the trio.

After holding them captive for over an hour, the gunman stepped outside and the men managed to escape. Authorities say the suspect then stole their car, before abandoning it 2 miles away. It was found a day later along with several firearms stolen from the men and the cabin.

More clues surfaced on Thursday after the family of David Louis Markiewitz, a retired dentist, found him shot dead in his cabin about 10 miles from the site of the kidnapping.

"It appears [the suspect’s] been breaking into homes in the area that are unoccupied and gaining access to firearms," Mr. Pruitt told the LA Times. 

After a brief lull in the search, a man with a high-caliber handgun shot at SWAT teams who were investigating a mobile home during their search Saturday. One deputy was shot twice during the exchange and was transported to a hospital with several injuries, while another suffered from a minor wound. 

Residents have been warned to stay indoors, and two elementary schools and a middle school have been closed indefinitely.

However, though the hunt continues, Pruitt says investigators haven’t confirmed whether the same person committed the three crimes. The unidentified gunman in question is believed to be a white man in his early 30s, camouflaged in olive-green apparel. The only other known detail, says Kern County Senior Deputy Brandon Rutledge, is that “he knows how to survive.” 

Material from the Associated Press was used for this report. 

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to Week-long manhunt underway in California following attacks
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/USA-Update/2015/0804/Week-long-manhunt-underway-in-California-following-attacks
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe