Sergeant Steven C. Owen was 53 when he was killed on October 5, 2016, in Lancaster, California. He had been working for the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department and was responding to a burglary in progress in the 3200 block of West Avenue J-7 when he was ambushed while checking the rear of an apartment building. The suspect, identified as Trenton Trevon Lovell, shot Sergeant Owen in the face and then fired four more times after Owen fell; Owen died about two hours later at Antelope Valley Hospital.

After the shooting, Lovell attempted to steal Sergeant Owen’s patrol car, crashed into another patrol vehicle as a second deputy arrived, and then fled into a nearby home where he held two teenagers hostage for several hours until a SWAT team apprehended him after a brief standoff. Lovell, who had two prior convictions and was on parole at the time, confessed in a videotaped interview and was charged with first-degree murder and related offenses. Victim impact statements from Owen’s widow, Tania Owen, and their children were made at sentencing.

Did anyone in the Lancaster area have contact with Sergeant Owen or information about the burglary call that day?