Lonny Gene Brewer, a 29-year-old deputy with the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department, was killed on December 5, 1987, during a tactical operation in Escondido, California. Brewer was a member of the department’s Special Enforcement Detail and was assisting the Escondido Police Department with a barricaded suspect, Robert Gary Taschner, who was armed with an AK-47 and had been terrorizing his ex-wife and neighbors.

After nearly six hours of standoff, chemical agents were used in the apartment and deputies attempted to breach the door. When Brewer and his partner, Deputy Scott Rossall, tried to enter, Taschner opened fire. Brewer was struck in the arm by a bullet that penetrated his vest and sustained a fatal wound; Rossall was wounded in the leg. Taschner, wearing military fatigues and a gas mask, continued firing while attempting to flee and was killed by return fire. Brewer was the first deputy in the department’s history to be killed in the line of duty; more than 1,000 officers attended his funeral.

The suspect died at the scene and was identified as the sole perpetrator.