Merced deputy recovering after deadly clash in Delhi

A Merced County Sheriff’s Department deputy was recovering Friday at a Modesto hospital, a day after he was shot twice during a gunfight in Delhi that left the suspect dead outside his own home.

Deputy Alejandro “Alex” Barba suffered two gunshot wounds Thursday night – one to his lower abdomen and one to his thigh. He is expected to make a full recovery, Sheriff Vern Warnke said Friday.

Deputy Adam Leuchner shot and killed 38-year-old Jose Torres just before 6 p.m. outside a home in the 16200 block of Harmony Ranch Drive, Warnke said.

Barba, 47, has been a Merced County sheriff’s deputy for 16 years. Leuchner, 39, has been with the Sheriff’s Office for eight years, authorities confirmed.

Barba and Leuchner were investigating a reported domestic disturbance at Torres’ home. Sgt. Delray Shelton said Torres was involved in “a physical domestic violence incident.” No injuries were reported during that incident.

When deputies arrived at the scene, investigators said, Torres exited his home with “as assault-like rifle” and opened fire, striking Barba twice. Leuchner returned fire, shooting multiple rounds. Deputies declined to comment on the exact number of shots that were fired.

The sheriff on Friday praised both deputies.

“They responded professionally and according to their training,” Warnke said. “I have no doubt that action taken by Deputy Leuchner saved the life of Deputy Barba.”

Deputies said investigators on Friday were looking into where and how Torres got the weapon used in the attack.

The sheriff said he was relieved to hear Barba would make a full recovery.

Warnke confirmed Leuchner had been placed on paid administrative leave pending a use-of-force review, saying both the review and the administrative leave were standard procedures in all deputy-involved shootings.

The Merced County District Attorney’s Office also will review the case, another routine practice in any officer-involved shooting, according to Chief Deputy District Attorney Rob Carroll.

“In general, law enforcement officers certainly are entitled to defend themselves,” Carroll said. “It’s standard for our office to review every officer-involved shooting to ensure that the use of force was justified.”

Carroll said Thursday’s violence was a reminder of the dangers law enforcement officials face every day.

Leuchner was one of two deputies who shot and killed double-homicide suspect Brian Hiatt on May 30, 2014, outside a Turlock motel. Hiatt was the prime suspect in the deaths hours earlier of his estranged wife, Rhonda Hiatt, and her sister, Lisa Robbins, at a home on South Lander Avenue.

Sheriff’s detectives tracked Hiatt to a motel on Walnut Road. He pointed gun at deputies and was shot and killed in the motel parking lot. The Stanislaus County District Attorney’s Office determined the deputies were justified when they shot and killed Hiatt, authorities said.

Christi Jantz, 49, has lived in the Delhi area since she was 9 years old and said the neighborhood has deteriorated over the years with gang shootings and other violence.

“It’s gotten scary,” she said. “It’s a lot different than it was back then. There have been a lot of shootings out here.”

Jantz said she wished law enforcement had a stronger presence in Delhi. The Sheriff’s Office in 2014 reopened a substation in Delhi after it was shuttered four years earlier, but Jantz said it’s not always clear whether deputies are patrolling in town.

In April, Warnke and Merced District Attorney Larry Morse II blasted the county’s Board of Supervisors during a joint presentation on local law enforcement funding. Warnke and Morse said the supervisors needed to invest more money into law enforcement to help hire and retain patrol deputies and prosecutors, calling the current state of law enforcement in Merced County a “public safety crisis.”

Warnke said while additional deputies would not have prevented Thursday’s violence, they would help with “the aftermath of this situation.”

“I’m now down two more guys who are off the street for who knows how long,” Warnke said. “And we’re still down about 10 patrol positions and I have four more thinking to leave for UC Merced because of this (salary) situation.”

“Sheriff’s records indicate a few contacts between Torres and deputies since 2008, as well as several bookings by the Livingston Police Department during the same time period,” deputies said in a statement released Friday.

Torres had been arrested numerous times on drug-related allegations. He also had been arrested at least once on suspicion of child endangerment, according to Shelton.

Much of Torres’ criminal history had been stored in an “antiquated” record-keeping program at the Sheriff’s Office. The office has updated their file-keeping system several times in recent years and were struggling on Friday to make the computer systems work together, deputies said.

Thursday’s incident is the first officer-involved shooting reported in Merced County since December, when sheriff’s deputies shot and killed a 50-year-old woman in Santa Nella.

The last time a law enforcement officer in Merced County suffered a gunshot wound came in March 2015 when a Merced police officer was shot during a traffic stop on H Street in Merced. The officer survived his injuries.

The violence came less than a week after a man shot two employees at the Fresno County Sheriff’s Office. Thong Vang, 37, has been charged with the attempted murder of two Fresno County correctional officers, according to The Fresno Bee.

This story was originally published September 9, 2016 at 5:40 PM with the headline "Merced deputy recovering after deadly clash in Delhi."