A section of Paso Robles, California, was under a shelter-in-place order Thursday after reports of shots fired in the manhunt for a gunman who shot a deputy and killed another person.
The suspect, identified by police as 26-year-old Mason James Lira, allegedly opened fire on a police station in the central California city at around 3:45 a.m., according to the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office.
He’s accused of shooting Deputy Nicholas Dreyfus, 28, in the face, leaving the lawman seriously injured, before fleeing the scene. Deputies later found a local man shot dead at the Paso Robles train station.
As they searched for Lira, the sheriff’s office Thursday implemented a shelter-in-place mandate for a two-mile stretch of the city after new reports of shots fired not far from the police station.
The sheriff’s office warns that that Lira, who they described as a “transient” from Monterey, is considered armed and dangerous.