LOS ANGELES — The parents of a Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy who was fatally shot in a Palmdale ambush attack announced a $20 million damages claim Tuesday, accusing the sheriff’s department and county officials of knowingly endangering the lives of deputies by forcing them to work excessive hours and shifts.

What You Need To Know

  • Michael and Kim Clinkunbroomer filed the claim against the county Monday
  • They alleging deputies are forced to work excessive overtime hours, and the situation left Ryan Clinkunbroomer too fatigued and unable to defend himself, leaving him susceptible to the ambush
  • According to their attorney, Ryan Clinkunbroomer worked 69 hours of overtime — in addition to his normal 80 hours — in the two weeks prior to his death
  • In a statement to local media, Sheriff Robert Luna said, “The senseless ambush murder of Deputy Ryan Clinkunbroomer was the epitome of evil and the department continues to mourn his death"

“We don’t want any parent to ever have to sit at a Thanksgiving or holiday dinner with someone missing, like we had to this year,” Kim Clinkunbroomer, the mother of the late Deputy Ryan Clinkunbroomer, said at a Tuesday morning news conference to announce the claim, which is a precursor to a lawsuit.

Michael and Kim Clinkunbroomer filed the claim against the county Monday, alleging deputies are forced to work excessive overtime hours, and the situation left Ryan Clinkunbroomer too fatigued and unable to defend himself, leaving him susceptible to the ambush. According to their attorney, Bradley Gage, Ryan Clinkunbroomer worked 69 hours of overtime — in addition to his normal 80 hours — in the two weeks prior to his death.

“We are here to help bring community awareness to a problem that the department has known for years and the Board of Supervisors has known for years,” Gage told reporters.

According to the claim, first reported and obtained by local media, the sheriff’s department forces deputies to “work mind-numbing overtime resulting in Ryan’s death and the likely death of other deputies.”

In a statement to local media, Sheriff Robert Luna said, “The senseless ambush murder of Deputy Ryan Clinkunbroomer was the epitome of evil and the department continues to mourn his death.”

Clinkunbroomer, a 30-year-old, third-generation deputy, was shot Sept. 16 while sitting in his patrol car at a traffic light near the station at Sierra Highway and East Avenue Q.

Video from the scene showed a dark-colored sedan pulling up behind the patrol SUV, then slowly pulling alongside the driver’s side of the deputy’s vehicle, pausing, then driving away.

Sheriff’s officials said a good Samaritan stopped to render aid after the shooting and the wounded deputy was taken to Antelope Valley Medical Center in grave condition. He was pronounced dead that night.

Kevin Cataneo Salazar, 29, has been charged with the killing, and has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity.

Sheriff’s deputies in tactical gear and armored vehicles — working off tips from the public — descended on Salazar’s family home on Sept. 18, initiating a standoff that finally ended when Special Enforcement Bureau personnel flushed him out with “chemical agents,” Luna said at the time.

Luna said “numerous firearms” were also recovered following the arrest, and that deputies seized a dark-colored sedan that was believed to be linked to the killing.

Luna said Clinkunbroomer was “murdered, ambushed by a coward.”

But Salazar’s mother and sister told reporters he is mentally ill.

“My brother, he’s getting called a coward,” Salazar’s sister, Jessica, told reporters. “He wasn’t in his right state of mind.”

Clinkunbroomer had gotten engaged four days before he was killed.