SNIPER REWARD MAY BE BOOSTED.

Byline: Daily News

LANCASTER - City Council members are expected to vote next week on increasing a reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of a sniper who fired at least a dozen shots Jan. 5 at three sheriff's deputies.

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors already has authorized a $10,000 reward, and the City Council is being asked to add $5,000 more.

``We're looking for a little more help,'' Capt. Carl Deeley, commander of the Lancaster sheriff's station, said Tuesday.

The three sheriff's deputies were not hurt but had to take cover behind cars at the Lancaster Mazda auto dealership on 10th Street West, where they had gone to investigate an earlier shot fired into a dealership showroom window.

Authorities believe the earlier shot had been intended to lure deputies to the dealership to be targeted for sniping.

The shots were fired from about 225 yards away. Deputies said they found spent shell casings near a wall around an apartment complex on Gadsden Avenue. The sniper or snipers had fired across a field and the dry Amargosa Creek at the deputies in the car lot.

Deputies searched two apartments to which bloodhounds led them the morning after the shooting, but no suspects were found. Deputies shot tear gas into one of the two apartments when they heard noise inside, but nobody answered the door.

The noise proved to be from a television set that had been left on, deputies said. When an occupant returned, they arrested him on suspicion of possessing marijuana for sale. Deputies said they found marijuana in the apartment.