Police today arrested a 16-year-old boy as the suspected gunman in yesterday's daytime slaying of a 35-year-old California Highway Patrol officer outside a Pomona courthouse.
The youth is believed to have been bent on killing a law enforcement officer, though not specifically CHP Officer Thomas Steiner, Pomona police Chief James Lewis said at a news conference. He said the boy, who divides his time between Pomona and Fontana, was arrested in Pomona at 2:50 a.m. today during a manhunt that relied on what he described as an extraordinary degree of cooperation among law enforcement agencies.
Steiner was gunned down about 3 p.m. yesterday after leaving the courthouse at 400 Civic Center where he testified in five traffic-citation cases. The gunman was riding in a stolen red 1987 Nissan Sentra, police said.
Steiner "was in uniform, armed and he had all his safety equipment on" when the shooting occurred, CHP Chief Art Acevedo said. He was hit three times in the upper body, authorities said.
"...We have lost one of our family," said CHP Patrol Chief Mike Brown. Steiner, a five-year CHP veteran assigned to the Santa Fe Springs area, "was well-respected and well-liked within our department," Brown said.
He is survived by a wife, two sons and his parents. "We are grieving with them as one big family," Brown said.
Steiner died about 7 p.m. yesterday, Brown said. His wife, mother and father were at his side, according to broadcast reports.
The shooting touched off a massive search for the driver of a red 1987 Nissan Sentra that apparently had been stolen from a woman yesterday.
The car was reported found about two hours later, six blocks south of the courthouse, parked between two commercial-style vehicles.