Los Angeles County is handing out $100,000 to two witnesses whose information helped convict the man who ambushed two sheriff's deputies at a Compton transit station in 2020. The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors approved splitting the reward 90-10 between the pair, whose identities remain confidential, after a county panel determined one witness's testimony had a greater impact on the case than the other's.
The ambush happened on September 12, 2020, when a gunman walked up to the passenger side of a sheriff's vehicle parked at the Compton transit center and opened fire before fleeing, according to surveillance video. Deputy Claudia Apolinar suffered a gunshot wound to her jaw and wounds to both arms that left them broken, and she has said one round nearly severed her tongue. Deputy Emmanuel Perez-Perez was shot in the forehead and an arm, per KOST 103.5.
Deonte Lee Murray, now 42, was convicted in 2023 of multiple felonies, including two counts of attempted murder of a peace officer, for carrying out the ambush during a crime spree that terrorized Los Angeles County that September. Prosecutors said Murray was seeking revenge after sheriff's deputies shot and killed his best friend, Sam Herrera, while serving a search warrant in Compton on September 10, 2020.
A Crime Spree That Spiraled in Days
Murray's rampage began on September 1, 2020, when he shot a man in the leg with a rifle and carjacked a black Mercedes-Benz, the same vehicle he later drove to a courthouse shooting, according to AP News. Two days before the deputy ambush, on September 10, Murray fired an assault rifle into an SUV outside the Compton Courthouse, wounding a civilian who was attending a Zoom meeting and whom Murray mistakenly believed was an undercover detective, as reported by Police1. He targeted the courthouse after learning deputies had killed Herrera earlier that same day.
Murray was finally apprehended on September 15, 2020, following a nine-hour standoff in Lynwood after he fled a vehicle pursuit and hid underneath a chicken coop in a residential backyard, a detail reported by CBS News. The arrest came after an 11-day crime spree that culminated in the deputy attacks. During his 2023 trial, defense attorney Kate Hardie argued Murray had acted impulsively while on a sleepless two-day binge of cognac and methamphetamine, compounded by grief over Herrera's death, according to the Los Angeles Times. Prosecutors countered that the ambush was a cold, deliberate act of revenge.
Deputies' Long Road to Recovery
Apolinar still carries scars on both arms and her face from the attack. She was later named the American Legion Department of California's 2021 Law Enforcement Officer of the Year for Valor for applying a tourniquet to her partner despite her own severe wounds, and she missed about two years of work, per CBS News. Perez-Perez testified in November 2023 that his mental injuries would last forever.
In August 2021, the two wounded deputies filed a civil lawsuit against Nevada-based Polymer80 Inc., alleging the manufacturer negligently marketed and sold the untraceable ghost gun kit used in their shooting, according to the Los Angeles Times. The weapon recovered during Murray's pursuit matched a Polymer80 PF940c model kit. At the time the lawsuit was filed, untraceable kit-built firearms accounted for roughly one-third of all weapons recovered from crime scenes by the Los Angeles Police Department, the Times reported.
From $700,000 in Pledges to a Quiet Payout
The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors' official reward was $100,000, but total reward offers from public transit agencies and private pledges swelled to nearly $700,000 during the September 2020 manhunt, according to a report at the time. Two witnesses ultimately came forward with information that led to Murray's arrest and conviction, and the county panel split the $100,000 reward 90 percent to one witness and 10 percent to the other, based on the impact of their respective information. The claimants' names and the details they provided to investigators have not been released.
Murray was originally sentenced in 2023 to 166 years and eight months to life in prison. In August 2026, Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Connie R. Quinones reduced that sentence by two years and eight months, to 164 years to life, after California's 2nd District Court of Appeal ruled prosecutors had failed to prove continuous firearm possession on two felon-in-possession counts, according to MyNewsLA. The appellate court reversed Murray's conviction on those two lesser charges, though the resentencing left the bulk of his original punishment intact.
