We have additional information on a Deputy-involved shooting that left a suspect dead in Yucca Valley Wednesday (June 9). According to Sheriff’s reports, Deputies responded around 7:40 p.m. to a report of a suspicious vehicle parked at a city park near the home of the caller. The caller said that the driver, later identified as Juan DeLeCruz Rodriguez, 58, of Barstow, was acting strange, driving from the park at a high rate of speed and into oncoming traffic. Deputies contacted Rodriguez in the parking lot of the Grocery Outlet in Yucca valley. Rodriguez was uncooperative with officers and, soon after, put his vehicle in reverse and rammed the patrol car. Moments later, a deputy involved shooting occurred and Rodriguez was struck by gunfire. Rodriguez was transported to High Desert Medical Center where he was pronounced deceased. Detectives from the Homicide Detail responded to the scene and recovered a knife, which fell from Rodriguez’s lap when he was pulled from the vehicle after the shooting. The investigation is ongoing.
