Orange County district attorney Todd Spitzer slammed Los Angeles County district attorney George Gascón saying he “doesn’t care” about the execution of a sheriff’s deputy last weekend.
Last Saturday, Deputy Ryan Clinkunbroomer was shot in the back of the head ambush-style in his patrol car while at a stop light near the Palmdale Sheriff’s station in Palmdale, California. Deputy Clinkunbroomer later succumbed to his injuries.
“Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascon does not care about the execution of 30-year-old Sheriff’s Deputy Ryan Clinkunbroomer, who was murdered while he was stopped at a red light in a marked patrol vehicle in his uniform, his LA County Sheriff’s badge pinned over his heart,” wrote DA Spitzer. “Gascon cares about sparing the life of the executioner, who shot the young deputy in the head and sped away, leaving the newly engaged lawman bleeding to death behind the wheel.”
Spitzer slammed Gascón’s Wednesday press conference at the Hall of Justice saying the Los Angeles DA “waxed poetic about his 30-year career as a police officer himself.”
The Orange County DA also said Gascón was lying when he said life without the possibility of parole (LWOP) was the maximum penalty allowable under California state law.
“The death penalty still exists in California – no matter how much George Gascon and Governor Gavin Newsom want to pretend it doesn’t,” Spitzer said. “In fact, California law allows the death penalty to be sought if a police officer is murdered.”
Statement from Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer Regarding the Failure by Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascon to Seek Justice for Deputy Ryan Clinkunbroomer
Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascon does not care about the execution pic.twitter.com/Al7zCOJlDN
— OCDA Todd Spitzer (@OCDAToddSpitzer) September 21, 2023
“Deputy Clinkunbroomer’s murderer will not have to worry about being executed because Gascon does not believe in the death penalty,” Spitzer said, adding that fear of the death penalty wasn’t a deterrent if DA Gascón refused to seek it. “Gascon had already decided the deputy’s death wasn’t worth going through the special circumstances analysis — a process we all follow in deciding whether to seek LWOP or death.”
Spitzer also slammed Gascón’s suggestion that seeking the death penalty for Deputy Clinkunbroomer’s murderer wouldn’t bring him back from the dead.
“So what was the point?” Spitzer wrote. “There is not a law on the books that can reincarnate the dead. They know that Ryan is never coming home.”
The Orange County DA said Clinkunbroomer’s family, along with every law enforcement officer in Los Angeles, “knows the harsh reality” that Gascón “refuses to seek justice” for law enforcement officers harmed or killed in the line of duty, despite being “the person the people of Los Angeles County elected to protect public safety.”
“The execution of Deputy Clinkunbroomer is an unacceptable tragedy,” Spitzer concluded. “While law enforcement officers across the nation grieve the loss of yet another officer murdered in the line of duty, they too must cope with the knowledge that justice for the men and women behind the badge is nowhere to be found in the Los Angeles County Hall of Justice as long as George Gascon is the District Attorney.”
