New details recently emerged in the case of slain Riverside County Sheriff’s Deputy Darnell Calhoun, one of two local deputies killed in shootings just two weeks apart.
Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco said Calhoun, 30, was shot almost immediately upon his arrival at the scene on Jan. 13 in the unincorporated Lakeland Village neighborhood, which borders the city of Lake Elsinore, California, located about 55 miles southeast of Los Angeles.
“He got shot within the first 15 seconds,” Bianco told The Epoch Times.
The suspects in the deaths of Calhoun and Riverside County Deputy Isaiah Cordero, 32, on Dec. 29, 2022, both have criminal records, according to authorities.
Bianco said the suspect in the Calhoun shooting, Jesse Navarro, 42, of Lake Elsinore, is a known methamphetamine user and has a history of domestic violence complaints. Navarro is in custody and remains hospitalized. He’s listed in critical condition.
Navarro hasn’t yet been charged due to his current medical condition but ultimately will be with one count of murder and one count of attempted murder of a law enforcement official, according to Bianco.
Although it’s suspected that Navarro may have been using methamphetamine at the time of the shooting, lab results won’t be available for several weeks, Bianco said.
“He was allegedly under the influence at the time. We don’t know that for sure yet,” Bianco said. “But the family has said that he was always using meth and he was acting bizarre, and they attributed it to that, so we’re assuming that’s what it is.”
The domestic dispute turned out to be an argument between Navarro and his wife over him wanting to take his child shopping, Bianco said.
“But yet he shoots a cop when a cop gets there,” he said.
After reviewing the facts in the domestic dispute, he said Navarro wouldn’t have been arrested had he complied with police.
Deputy Darnell Calhoun
Calhoun was shot while responding to a domestic violence complaint over a child custody dispute in the 18500 block of Hilldale Lane. He died in the hospital later that evening.He was the first to respond on the scene. A second deputy arrived “probably within 30 seconds” of Calhoun to find him wounded in the street.
Navarro, armed with a handgun, allegedly opened fire on the second deputy who shot him in the ensuing gun battle, Bianco said.
“There were dozens of rounds fired,” he said.
Other police cruisers arrived within a minute of Calhoun, according to Bianco.
“It was all over by then,” he said.
The initial complaint was described as “unknown trouble” but appeared to be a domestic violence case over a child custody dispute and possibly “parental kidnapping,” Bianco said.
In cases like this, deputies must weigh the safety of potential victims over their own, he said.
Bianco announced Calhoun’s death at an evening press conference outside Inland Valley Medical Center in Wildomar, California, where he died.
“I shouldn’t be here tonight having to do this again,” he said at the time. “I’m devastated to tell of the loss of another of our deputy sheriffs who was killed in the line of duty.”
Before the deaths of Calhoun and Cordera, the last time a deputy was killed in the line of duty was in 2003, Bianco said.
After 11 p.m. that night, hundreds of people, some waving Thin Blue Line flags and signs in support of Calhoun’s family, lined the streets, freeways, and overpasses along Interstate 215 to pay tribute as a police procession transported the slain deputy’s body from the hospital to the Coroner’s Bureau in Perris, California.
Deputy Isaiah Cordero
Cordero was shot and fatally wounded when the driver of a pickup truck he had pulled over in a traffic stop allegedly opened fire on him as he approached the vehicle in the 3900 block of Golden West Avenue in Jurupa Valley, California, a city near Riverside.Police pursued the suspect, 44-year-old William Shae McKay, who led them on a manhunt, including a freeway chase in two counties. Ultimately, McKay was killed during a shootout with deputies after his truck crashed.
Three Strikes
Bianco and Cordero’s family have called for the resignation of a Southern California judge who lowered McKay’s bail, allowing his release, claiming that he shouldn’t have been granted such on a “third strike” conviction while awaiting sentencing.
Riverside County District Attorney Mike Hestrin told The Epoch Times that he agrees with Bianco’s assessment of McKay’s case.
“The suspect should have been in custody when the shooting happened,” he said.
Former Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva also told The Epoch Times that, as a convicted “third-striker,” McKay should have been sentenced immediately and taken into custody to start serving his time.
In 2012, California voters passed Proposition 36 to amend the three-strikes statute established by Proposition 184 in 1994, which was intended to increase prison sentences for repeat offenders. Prop. 36 changed the three strikes sentencing system to impose life sentences only when new felony convictions are serious or violent and allowed resentencing for some convicts serving life sentences.
