Palmdale Deputy Ambush Trial Opens — Insanity Defense Now the Only Fight

A Los Angeles County Superior Court jury heard opening statements Monday in the murder trial of the man accused of ambushing and killing Los Angeles County Sheriff's Deputy Ryan Clinkunbroomer at a red light in Palmdale nearly three years ago. Prosecutors say 32-year-old Kevin Eduardo Cataneo Salazar pulled alongside the 30-year-old deputy on September 16, 2023, and shot him in the back of the head as he sat stopped in his patrol vehicle. His defense attorney told jurors the case would not turn on whether Salazar fired the shot, but on whether he was legally sane when he did.

As reported by NBC Los Angeles, prosecutor David Ayvazian told the jury that Clinkunbroomer “died because he was a deputy sheriff,” and that Salazar told two undercover jail operatives he had wanted to kill a police officer for years. Salazar faces a murder charge that includes special circumstance allegations of murdering a peace officer, lying in wait, and firing from a vehicle, along with an allegation that he personally discharged a .22-caliber revolver in the killing. Those special circumstance allegations can increase the penalties he faces at sentencing.

Salazar has entered dual pleas of not guilty and not guilty by reason of insanity, a legal structure that shapes the entire trial. Under California Penal Code Section 1026, that dual plea triggers a bifurcated process in which a jury first decides, with the defendant presumed sane, whether he committed the crime, and only afterward — if he is convicted — proceeds to a second phase weighing his sanity, according to the Vienna Psychological Group. If jurors find he was legally insane at the time of the shooting, state law mandates commitment to a state mental hospital rather than prison, as MyNewsLA.com reported. If convicted as charged and found sane, Salazar could face life in prison.

What Prosecutors Say Happened That Night

Prosecutors allege Salazar drove around Palmdale confronting complete strangers before the shooting, and that a motorist testified he photographed the license plate of a vehicle whose driver aggressively confronted him about seven minutes before authorities believe Clinkunbroomer was shot. Investigators used surveillance video to identify a vehicle believed to be a Toyota Corolla and asked the public for information about it. A deputy medical examiner concluded Clinkunbroomer died from a single gunshot that entered the back of his head.

Los Angeles County Sheriff's homicide detective Gustavo Carrillo testified at a June 2024 hearing that Salazar acknowledged involvement in the shooting during questioning at the Palmdale sheriff's station. Investigators say Salazar described following officers, parking and waiting, and playing music to prepare himself before the attack, and that he told investigators he felt bad and cried for the officer afterward. He also reportedly said the shooting “began a long time ago before covid” and that he had begun to hear voices in his head.

The Insanity Defense Takes Center Stage

Salazar's attorney argued in opening statements that Salazar was not targeting law enforcement officers specifically, and said the trial would ultimately focus on whether Salazar was insane rather than on whether he fired the shot — a point prosecutors are not contesting. The defense plans to call three mental health professionals during the sanity phase who concluded Salazar was legally insane at the time of the offense, pointing to what it describes as apparently irrational behavior he displayed on the day of the killing and two days earlier.

That defense builds on years-old reporting about Salazar's psychiatric history. He was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia around 2018 and had been hospitalized twice for psychiatric crises and suicide attempts, yet was still able to legally purchase the .22-caliber handgun used in the shooting weeks before the attack, according to the Los Angeles Times. State law bars gun purchases by people subject to certain involuntary mental health holds, but reporting delays or gaps in that system can allow purchases to proceed regardless.

Before the shooting, Salazar's mother, Marle Salazar, repeatedly called law enforcement seeking help for her son's psychiatric condition after he stopped taking his medication, the Times has reported. Officers told her they could not intervene because he was an adult refusing voluntary treatment, a limitation state law imposes on agencies dealing with adults who decline psychiatric care unless they pose an immediate threat.

From Standoff to Downtown Courtroom

Salazar was taken into custody on September 18, 2023, after a multi-hour standoff at his Palmdale home, where SWAT negotiators attempted de-escalation before deploying chemical agents once he barricaded himself and threatened suicide, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department. Officials emphasized that deputies took him into custody without firing a shot. In early 2026, the trial was moved from the Antelope Valley Courthouse in Lancaster to the Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center in downtown Los Angeles after defense attorneys raised concerns about potential jury bias in the local community, per the Santa Clarita Valley Signal.

District Attorney George Gascón announced in September 2023 that prosecutors would not seek the death penalty against Salazar, instead pursuing life without parole in keeping with a policy Gascón instituted upon taking office in 2020, according to CBS Los Angeles. Salazar resided in Palmdale at the time of the shooting, and the driver identified in court as responsible for the killing has been named as Kevin Eduardo Cataneo Salazar throughout the proceedings.

A Fourth-Generation Deputy, Days From Marriage

Clinkunbroomer was working as a deputy sheriff when he was killed and was a fourth-generation member of a law enforcement family, following a grandfather who retired as a captain in 1999 and a father who retired as a lieutenant two decades later. He had served eight years with LASD and worked as a field training officer mentoring new deputies. He had become engaged four days before he was killed.

In November 2023, Clinkunbroomer's parents filed a $20 million wrongful death claim against Los Angeles County, alleging severe staffing shortages forced deputies into excessive overtime — including 69 overtime hours Clinkunbroomer worked in the two weeks before his death — leaving him chronically fatigued and unable to react during the ambush, the Times reported. Such administrative claims are a required legal step before a civil lawsuit can be filed against a California public entity.

In January 2026, Los Angeles County Supervisor Kathryn Barger and Sheriff Robert Luna led a ceremony dedicating the renamed Ryan M. Clinkunbroomer Castaic Sports Complex in his hometown of Castaic, a lasting community memorial that includes an exterior monument sign and a commemorative plaque inside the gymnasium. Hoodline previously covered the debate over Gascón's death penalty call shortly after charges were filed, and more recently reported on a separate Palmdale-area law enforcement shooting that cited Clinkunbroomer's death as regional context.

Nationally, FBI data show 60 law enforcement officers were feloniously killed in the line of duty in 2023, with ambushes and unprovoked attacks remaining among the leading circumstances behind officer deaths. The bureau found that 194 officers were feloniously killed between 2021 and 2023, the highest three-year total in two decades. The trial's current phase will determine whether Salazar committed the killing; only if jurors convict him will the case move to a second phase deciding whether he was legally insane, and whether he is ultimately sent to state prison or committed indefinitely to a state psychiatric hospital.