A California sheriff's deputy was fatally shot while serving an eviction order when a suspect opened fire, and the suspect was later killed after officers ran over him with an armored vehicle.
The shooting unfolded April 9 at about 10:20 a.m. when Tulare County deputies arrived at a home in Porterville to serve an eviction notice on 59-year-old David Morales, reported the Visalia Times Delta, part of the USA TODAY Network. Morales opened fire, striking Deputy Randy Hoppert, 35, according to Tulare Sheriff Mike Boudreaux.
Porterville is a city in central California with about 60,000 residents between Fresno and Bakersfield.
Hoppert was rushed to a hospital and died from his injuries. He was a six-year veteran of the force and a Navy corpsman who served from 2010 to 2015.
After shooting Hoppert, Morales barricaded himself inside but was later able to escape through a window, dressed in camouflage and armed with a long rifle. He hid in brush and eluded officers prompting a search that lasted for hours, authorities said. The sheriff announced he had been run over by a Kern County BearCat armored SWAT vehicle just before 6 p.m.
