The San Bernardino County District Attorney’s Office has determined that an officer-involved shooting of a murder suspect in 2018 was justified. On May 21, 2018, Ronda Ebeling, 23, of Joshua Tree, agreed to meet her former boyfriend, Ray Wyatt, 58, also of Joshua Tree, about 8 p.m. at La Contenta Road and Yucca Trail in Yucca Valley. Ebeling was on the phone with a friend when the friend heard Wyatt say he had a gun. The friend hung up and called 911.
When Deputy Robert Stucki arrived, he saw Wyatt shoot Ebeling, who fell to the ground. Stucki fired at Wyatt who fled into the desert with his gun. Sergeant Mauricio Hurtado, Deputy Roger Alfaro, and Deputy Michael Sellers arrived and began searching for Wyatt, while Deputy Tyler Detrinidad remained with Ebeling until paramedics arrived to take her to Hi-Desert Medical Center, where she died.
The deputies saw Wyatt hiding behind a bush and ordered him to show his hands. Instead, Wyatt ran, still holding a gun, and Stucki, Hurtado, Alfaro, and Sellers fired their weapons at him and saw him fall. When they reached him, he was lying face down, with multiple gunshot wounds. A handgun was underneath him. The deputies attempted CPR, but he was pronounced deceased at the scene.
The District Attorney’s Office concluded “Sergeant Hurtado, Deputy Alfaro, Deputy Seller, and Deputy Stucki’s use of lethal force was a proper exercise of their rights of self-defense and defense of others, and therefore their actions were legally justified.”
