Tulare County Sheriff’s officials said a fatal shooting erupted Thursday morning in Porterville when deputies went to a home to serve an eviction notice, setting off a several-hours-long standoff that ended with the suspect being killed. Sheriff Mike Boudreaux said the man opened fire on officers when they arrived, prompting law enforcement to seal off the neighborhood and respond with SWAT teams as the standoff unfolded.
Boudreaux said the deputies were serving the notice to a 60-year-old man and that Porterville is about 150 miles (240 kilometers) northeast of Los Angeles in California’s Central Valley. He said the man barricaded himself inside the home with a rifle for several hours while he continued firing at law enforcement.
During the confrontation, authorities used gas into the home as the man continued to fire, Boudreaux said. He said the standoff ended around 6 p.m. after the man left the home and moved through the yards of nearby homes rather than remaining inside.
Boudreaux later said a Kern County SWAT team drove an armored car into the yard where the man was laying on the ground, and the man then started firing at the team. The sheriff said the armored car drove over the man, killing him.
Authorities said the suspect had failed to pay rent for 35 days and was expecting law enforcement to serve a final notice for eviction. Boudreaux said the man “laid in wait” and shot at officers immediately when they arrived, after deputies began serving the notice.
Boudreaux said the suspect’s family was in contact with him and urged him to come out peacefully, but he refused. He said residents in the area were evacuated by SWAT teams or told to shelter in place for several hours, and nearby schools were placed on lockdown.
The sheriff said the deputy who was killed was Detective Randy Hoppert, a veteran of the U.S. Navy who joined the sheriff’s department in 2020. Boudreaux said Hoppert was part of a group of officers that arrived to help after gunfire began, and a bystander video posted by the Visalia Times-Delta showed armed deputies crouched on a road in a residential neighborhood when shots rang out.
Boudreaux said, “This is senseless,” at an evening news conference. Miguel Ibarra, who said his 82-year-old mother lives across the street from the gunman, said it was “surreal” to see the family’s neighborhood appear on television, and he said police did “a really good job keeping us informed” during the operation.