Roughly two hundred people gathered outside the Santa Cruz County Sheriff's Office Sunday afternoon to mourn the death of 38-year-old Sgt. Damon Gutzwiller. He was killed after he responded to a call about a suspicious van Saturday.
The incident began with an afternoon call about a white van, with guns and bomb-making material visible inside, parked near Ben Lomond, about ten miles north of Santa Cruz. Gutzwiller was among those who spotted the van as it took off. It eventually parked at a home in Ben Lomond.
![Steven Carrillo, the gunman alleged to have ambushed and killed Santa Cruz Sgt. Damon Gutzwiller, is a sergeant a Travis Air Force Base.](https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/06/steven-carrillo-ht-jef-200607_hpEmbed_4x5_992.jpg)
It was then authorities say Gutzwiller and other deputies were ambushed with gunfire and explosives. Gutzwiller was shot and pronounced dead by the time he arrived at a hospital. Another deputy was hit and was struck by a car as the suspect fled the property.
In the end, law enforcement officers shot and arrested 32-year-old Steven Carrillo, an active-duty sergeant stationed at Travis Air Force Base. He was hospitalized and is expected to be criminally charged in the coming days with murder and several other felony charges, according to the Santa Cruz County Sheriff's Office.
The FBI in San Francisco has joined the effort to determine if Carrillo acted alone, and if this incident was connected to the May 29 killing of Federal Protective Services Officer Dave Patrick Underwood in Oakland.
"The picture of good community policing"
One by one, Gutzwiller's friends and colleagues choked back tears describing their love for him before a hushed and tearful crowd of family, county first responders and well-wishers.