Ben Lomond: One Deputy Dead, Two Others Injured After Ambush Shooting

06.06.2020 | 1:30 PM | BEN LOMOND – One deputy was killed and two others were wounded when a suspect later identified as an active-duty Air Force sergeant ambushed them, Saturday evening.

Deputies responded to a call reporting a suspicious vehicle with weapons and bomb-making materials inside near Highway 9 in Ben Lomond around 1:30 PM.

Deputies arriving in the area observed a van matching the suspect vehicle description and followed it to a home where they were ambushed by gunfire and explosives.

One deputy, later identified as 38-year-old Damon Gutzwiller, a Santa Cruz Sheriff’s Department sergeant, was injured and transported to a hospital where he succumbed to his injuried.

Another deputy was struck by shrapnel or gunfire and a California Highway Patrol officer was shot in his hand during the incident.

The suspected shooter, 32-year-old Steven Carrillo, was struck by police gunfire and tried carjacking a vehicle before being taken into custody.

Carrillo, an active duty Air Force sergeant assigned to the 60th Security Forces Squadron based out of Travis Air Force Base, was charged with first-degree murder among other charges while the Federal Bureau of Investigation also joined the investigation.

The FBI is looking into whether Carrillo was involved with a shooting in Oakland on May 29th, 2020 around 9:45 PM that left 53-year-old Dave Patrick Underwood, a Federal Protective Service security officer, dead and another injured outside the Ronald V. Dellums Federal Building in Oakland.

A recent press release regarding the Oakland shooting included a photo of a white panel van believed to be the suspect vehicle.

Carrilos late wife, Monika Leigh Scott Carrillo, served in the Air Force but was found deceased in a hotel room in South Carolina in May of 2018. She was 30 and her death was later ruled a suicide.

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