RivCo Deputy Fatally Shot near Lake Elsinore, Suspect In Custody

(CNS) – A Riverside County sheriff’s deputy was fatally shot during a confrontation with a suspect Friday afternoon at a Lakeland Village residence, becoming the agency’s second deputy killed in the line of duty in two weeks.

“We are devastated to announce the passing of Deputy Darnell Calhoun who was killed in the line of duty this afternoon,” the sheriff’s department announced on its Twitter page just before 8 p.m.

No other details were immediately released, but sheriff’s officials said earlier a suspect was in custody.

The shooting occurred about 4:30 p.m. in the 18500 block of Hilldale Lane, just east of Grand Avenue, in the unincorporated community that borders Lake Elsinore, according to the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department.

The circumstances were not immediately clear.

According to sheriff’s officials, the suspect, whose identity was not released, was taken into custody at the scene.

The deputy was taken to nearby Inland Valley Medical Center in Wildomar, where he later died. Reports from the scene indicated the suspect may have been taken to the same hospital for treatment of unknown injuries, but there was no immediate confirmation of those reports.

County Fire Department crews were sent to the residential area where the shooting occurred, apparently to render medical aid, and they were still there late Friday afternoon.

A host of sheriff’s deputies, meanwhile, entered the home on Hilldale Lane with guns drawn in an apparent search effort. It was unclear if another suspects were being sought.

Officials were asking all non-residents to stay away from the location while an investigation proceeded.

The shooting came roughly two weeks after another Riverside County deputy, 32-year-old Isaiah Cordero, was fatally shot during a traffic stop in Jurupa Valley. The killing of Cordero, a motorcycle patrol deputy, was the first line-of-duty death of a Riverside County sheriff’s deputy in 15 years.

Cordero’s funeral was held Jan. 6 at Harvest Christian Fellowship in Riverside, attended by hundreds of law enforcement officers and deputies from across California and the Southwest.

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