A Los Angeles County jury needed just two and a half hours to find Kevin Salazar guilty of first-degree murder for shooting Sheriff’s Deputy Ryan Clinkunbroomer in the head as the 30-year-old deputy sat in his marked patrol car at a red light in Palmdale, California. The verdict, returned Monday after a week-long trial, also sustained three special circumstance allegations: murder of a peace officer, lying in wait, and firing from a vehicle.
Clinkunbroomer was in uniform, less than a block from the Palmdale Sheriff’s Station, when Salazar allegedly pulled alongside him at roughly 6 p.m. on September 16, 2023, and fired a.22 revolver into his head. The deputy was pronounced dead at a hospital. He was 30 years old and engaged to be married.
The conviction delivers a measure of accountability nearly three years after a killing that left a law enforcement family, and the wider community around Palmdale, searching for answers that still have not fully arrived. No clear motive has been established. The trial’s next phase, a sanity proceeding set for Wednesday, will determine whether the 32-year-old Salazar spends the rest of his life in state prison or is confined to a state mental hospital.
Authorities said Salazar followed Clinkunbroomer from the Palmdale Sheriff’s Station to the nearby intersection, identified in memorial photographs as Sierra Highway and Avenue Q, then pulled his car alongside the deputy’s marked vehicle and opened fire. Salazar sped away. Two days later, law enforcement found him at his family’s home in Palmdale and arrested him after a standoff.
Clinkunbroomer came from a family steeped in law enforcement. His grandfather, father, and brother all served with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, making Ryan a third-generation member. Sheriff Robert Luna, who was pictured comforting the deputy’s fiancée and parents at a September 20, 2023 news conference, issued a statement after the verdict.
Luna said:
“Ryan dedicated his life to service, proudly carrying on his family’s legacy as a third-generation member of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. We will forever honor his service, his sacrifice and the badge he proudly wore. Deputy Ryan Clinkunbroomer will never be forgotten.”
The deputy’s fiancée, Brittany Lindsey, stood beside the sheriff at that news conference days after the killing. His parents, Kim and Mike Clinkunbroomer, later appeared with their attorney at a separate press event in November 2023.
The jury deliberated for roughly two and a half hours, a pace that suggests the evidence left little room for doubt. The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office confirmed the panel found all three special circumstance allegations true, a finding that carries the possibility of life in prison without parole.
District Attorney Nathan Hochman released a statement calling the killing a “brutal and senseless murder” that “took the life of a dedicated deputy, leaving his family, colleagues and community to endure an unimaginable loss.” He added: “We hope today’s guilty verdict brings a measure of healing to Deputy Clinkunbroomer’s family and loved ones.”
Brad Gage, the Los Angeles attorney representing the Clinkunbroomer family, told Fox News Digital that the motive remains a blank. As far as the family and their legal team can tell, there was no reason for the shooting. Gage described it bluntly.
“As far as we know, there was no reason. It was just execution of a police officer.”
That a man could follow a uniformed deputy from his own station and gun him down at a stoplight, for no discernible reason, is the kind of fact that speaks for itself. In an era when violent attacks on public servants continue to draw national attention, the Clinkunbroomer case stands as a grim reminder of the dangers law enforcement officers face simply driving home from work.
Gage spoke about what the conviction means for a family that has been navigating grief and legal frustration since 2023. He acknowledged the verdict provides something, even if it cannot undo the loss.
“It’s very helpful that the justice system prevail, that you have a conviction that is a benefit to the family. That gives some solace. That gives some comfort.”
But comfort has its ceiling. Gage described the particular agony of parents who outlive a child.
“When a parent loses a child, there’s no name for it. It’s so painful, it’s so traumatic, it is so devastating that it is beyond words.”
The family had previously filed a $20 million wrongful death lawsuit against Los Angeles County, but the case was dismissed on the basis of workers’ compensation protections. Gage said the family also decided not to pursue a civil case against Salazar himself. The reasons were not detailed, but the practical reality of collecting a civil judgment against an incarcerated defendant is well understood.
The county did take one step to honor the fallen deputy. In January 2026, Los Angeles County renamed a Department of Parks and Recreation sports complex after Clinkunbroomer. It is a gesture, and gestures matter, but it is not the same as the systemic accountability the family originally sought through litigation.
Salazar raised an insanity defense during the trial. The source does not detail the specific basis for that claim, but the jury’s swift guilty verdict on all counts suggests the defense did not gain traction during the guilt phase. The court now moves to a separate sanity proceeding, scheduled for Wednesday, which will decide whether Salazar is sentenced to prison or committed to a state mental hospital.
The distinction matters enormously. If found legally sane, Salazar faces the prospect of life without parole given the special circumstance findings. If found insane, confinement in a mental facility carries a different, and potentially shorter, trajectory. The family, the department, and the public will be watching.
Cases like these test whether the justice system can deliver outcomes that match the severity of the crime. When courts hand down convictions but fail to impose meaningful consequences, public trust erodes. The sanity phase will determine whether this case follows through or falls short.
In the days after the shooting, a sidewalk memorial grew at the corner of Sierra Highway and Avenue Q in Palmdale. Flowers, flags, and tributes accumulated at the spot where Clinkunbroomer was shot. The community response was immediate and sustained.
The timeline from killing to conviction stretched nearly three years. Salazar was arrested quickly, within two days, but the legal process moved at its own pace. The week-long trial, the swift deliberation, and the unanimous verdict on all counts suggest the prosecution built a strong case, though the specific evidence and testimony presented have not been publicly detailed.
The Clinkunbroomer family’s experience also reflects a broader pattern in which justice delayed tests the patience of victims’ families who must endure years of proceedings while grieving. For the Clinkunbroomers, the guilty verdict closes one chapter. The sanity phase opens another.
Meanwhile, the question of motive hangs unanswered. No one, not the prosecution, not the defense, not the family’s attorney, has offered a coherent explanation for why Salazar targeted a uniformed deputy sitting at a red light. That void is its own kind of torment for a family searching for meaning in a loss that appears to have none.
The criminal justice system has no shortage of cases demanding accountability, but few carry the stark simplicity of this one: a deputy in uniform, in a marked car, at a stoplight, shot without warning or reason. The jury saw it clearly enough to reach its verdict in under three hours.
Now the system has one more decision to make. The Clinkunbroomer family, and every officer who puts on a badge and drives to work, deserves to see it made right.
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