On Saturday night, two Los Angeles County Sheriff’s deputies stationed their patrol car near the Willowbrook Metro station in Compton. At approximately 7 p.m., a masked gunman appeared to walk past the vehicle then turned and fired multiple shots, hitting both deputies.
Fox News Los Angeles reporter Bill Melugin obtain video of the shooting and confirmed a “100 percent ambush. A man slowly creeps up to the vehicle like he’s stalking it, fires shots through the window.” The Sheriff’s department posted the video and Sheriff Alex Villanueva held a press conference wearing a bullet-proof vest.
The ambushed deputies were a 24-year-old male and a mother of 31, both recent additions to the department. “I want everyone to have a prayer for them for their recovery at this time,” the sheriff told reporters. “This was a cowardly act,” Villanueva said, and “words have consequences,” a reference to anti-police rhetoric now raging in Los Angeles and across the country.
As Villanueva wrapped up, a mob confronted sheriff's deputies, with one member shouting “It’s a celebration! It’s a celebration!” Others taunted deputies and took videos with their phones. As this played out, the ambush victims encountered other conflict at St. Francis Hospital in Lynwood.