California Public Safety

A Tulare County deputy, Randy Hoppert — a Navy corpsman from 2010-2015 who joined the sheriff's office on Jan. 5, 2020 — was killed in an ambush while deputies served an eviction in Porterville and was pronounced dead at Sierra View District Hospital at 11:57 a.m. Sheriff Mike Boudreaux said the suspect, David Eric Morales, who had not paid rent for about 35 days and was the subject of a final eviction notice, lay in wait and repeatedly fired at officers (including shooting down a drone) and was later killed when a law-enforcement BearCat armored vehicle ran over him; Boudreaux said Morales "was not shot."