Man Convicted of First-Degree Murder in Killing of LA County Sheriff's Deputy
Kevin Eduardo Cataneo Salazar was found guilty of first-degree murder with special circumstance allegations in the shooting death of Deputy Ryan Clinkunbroomer.
2 reports on this incident · first at Aug 25, 2026, 12:22 a.m. ET
This case is not concluded. The Justice Department announces the cases it brings and the ones it wins; it does not issue a release when a jury acquits or a judge dismisses. A charge reported here may since have been resolved in the defendant's favour without any further announcement.
We last searched for new coverage of this at Aug 25, 2026, 12:39 a.m. ET — checked 2h ago.
Earlier reports
Aug 25, 2026, 12:22 a.m. ETFirst report
Man Convicted of First-Degree Murder in Killing of LA County Sheriff's Deputy
A jury has convicted Kevin Eduardo Cataneo Salazar, 32, of Palmdale, of first-degree murder in the killing of Los Angeles County Sheriff's Deputy Ryan Clinkunbroomer, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office, as reported by kesq.com. The conviction was announced on August 24, 2026.
The government alleged that Salazar pulled up next to Deputy Clinkunbroomer in Palmdale and shot him in broad daylight, making a U-turn to follow him and stalk "his prey" before shooting him in the back of the head, kesq.com reported. The jury also found true special circumstance allegations of murder of a peace officer, lying in wait, and firing from a vehicle, and that Salazar personally used and discharged a .22-caliber revolver.
Salazar now faces a statutory maximum of life in prison. The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department investigated the case. Sentencing has not yet been scheduled.
Was this report accurate and useful?
Sources
Revision history
- Version 125 Aug 2026, 04:22current
First published.
- Version 125 Aug 2026, 04:22current
First published.
How we work
This site models an investigative reporter rather than a wire desk. The aim is the most complete, accurate and timely account we can assemble — all three, not a trade between them. Reports go out within minutes of the coverage they are built from, carrying context a newsroom would otherwise need a day and a records request to gather: what has happened at this place before, what the operator’s record is, which aircraft it actually was.
Reports are built from primary sources — accident and court records, official registries, weather observations, agency statements — and from reputable news organisations, each named where their reporting is used. Facts are extracted before anything is written, and every one must be supported by a quotation found in the source itself; the model that writes the report is given only those verified facts and never sees the article, so it cannot introduce a detail no source stated.
Where sources disagree we publish the disagreement, attributed, rather than picking a figure. Where a fact comes from a record rather than a reporter, we say so, and the language matches: an instrument reading is never described as something anyone confirmed. Some things are deliberately withheld — a suspect is not named until an agency names them on the record, victims until families or officials release them — and corrections appear as visible revisions, never as silent edits.
None of that makes a report true. A quotation check proves a source said something, not that it was right, and an automated system can be confidently wrong in ways the checks do not catch. If something here is wrong, the feedback above is how it gets found. The full methodology, including what we refuse to publish.