SNIPER SETS UP DEPUTIES RIFLE SHOT INTO AUTO SHOWROOM LAID AMBUSH.

Byline: Charles F. Bostwick Staff Writer

LANCASTER - A sniper who fired at least a dozen rifle shots at three sheriff's deputies drew them out with an earlier shot into an auto dealership showroom window, officials said Friday.

Special-weapons deputies searched two apartment units Friday in the hunt for the sniper - or snipers - whose gunfire the previous night sent the deputies diving for cover outside the Lancaster Mazda dealership.

``In my mind, this was a specific-intent crime. The first shot was to draw deputies there,'' Lancaster sheriff's station commander Capt. Carl Deeley said Friday. ``The whole idea was to draw the deputies and then fire the rounds.''

Neither the three deputies nor the dealership employees who were closing up the store when the first shot hit the window were hurt. The deputies were the only people outside the dealership when the later fusillade was fired, officials said.

The shots were fired from about 225 yards away, from a block wall surrounding an apartment complex on Gadsden Avenue, officials said. A field and the dry Amargosa Creek separate the apartment complex from the dealership.

Deputies found 15 empty shell casings near the complex's wall. Investigators have not ruled out that more than one gunman might have fired at the deputies, using a second firearm that doesn't eject its spent casings.

Two bloodhounds led deputies from the shell casings to two apartment units at the other side of the complex, Deputy Mark Round said. Residents inside the complex also reported hearing gunfire, deputies said.

Detectives obtained search warrants and called in special-weapons deputies because people who had lived in the apartment units - at least in the past - had criminal records, deputies said. Deputies wanted to search the apartments for evidence as well as look for the sniper, Deeley said.

But when deputies entered Friday morning, no one was home. Deputies shot tear gas into one of the apartment units before entering because they thought someone was inside and refused to answer; the noise they heard coming from inside turned out to be a television set that was left on.

Detectives believe whoever fired the shots either lived in one of those apartments or visited them.

Two young men were taken into custody in the complex, but Deeley said they were arrested on unrelated misdemeanor warrants.

The incident began with a report about 8:45 p.m. Thursday from Mazda dealership employees that a bullet had hit a showroom window. Seven deputies and a sergeant were dispatched there.

After the sergeant and four of the deputies drove away, the three remaining deputies were standing outside the dealership when a bullet passed between them. They took cover behind cars, and more bullets flew overhead.

``They could hear the bullets go over,'' Deeley said.

The deputies radioed for help. More than two dozen sheriff's deputies from the Lancaster and Palmdale stations, plus a helicopter, arrived to get the remaining employees out of the dealership and to surround the complex from which the shots were fired.

Charles F. Bostwick, [phone]

chuck.bostwick(at)dailynews.com

CAPTION(S):

3 photos

Photo:

(1 -- color) A SWAT officer in a gas mask checks around an apartment complex looking for a sniper who ambushed deputies.

(2 -- color) Sheriff's Department SWAT team members enter a Lancaster apartment complex looking for a sniper or snipers Friday as sheriff's deputies stand by.

(3 -- color) SWAT team members hang onto an armored vehicle as they leave an apartment complex after searching for a sniper.

Jeff Goldwater/Staff Photographer