Vigil Mourns Damon Gutzwiller, Santa Cruz Deputy Killed In Ambush

SANTA CRUZ, CA — The Santa Cruz community on Sunday continued to mourn Sheriff's Sgt. Damon Gutzwiller, 38, who was killed Saturday afternoon after he walked into an ambush of gunfire and explosives while responding to a call in Ben Lomond.

At a vigil Sunday afternoon outside the sheriff's office, Gutzwiller was remembered by sheriff's colleagues as a gentle soul, quick to smile, who made those around him feel safe and loved.

"I can’t describe the sense of loss I woke up with this morning," Sheriff Jim Hart said during Sunday's vigil, following an invocation by Chaplain Kathi Howard. "There’s a hole in our hearts right now."

During a week when the country has turned its attention toward police misconduct, Hart remembered Gutzwiller as a model officer who avoided conflict whenever he could.

"Damon is the picture of community policing," Hart said. "He was kind, caring, empathetic."

"He could take enforcement action when he needed to, but he would rather communicate his way through any problem that was in front of him," Hart said.

"I never saw him have a bad day even when he was due one," said Steve Ryan, a sheriff's sergeant and Gutzwiller's former beat partner.

"He was incredibly patient, gentle in a way that's rare in this world, but with the rocksteady confidence of someone who knows what the hell they're doing in almost every situation they find themselves in.”

Department mourns a 14-year veteran

Gutzwiller was pronounced dead at a hospital Saturday after responding to the incident in Ben Lomond, in which one man, Steven Carillo, an active-duty Air Force sergeant from Ben Lomond, has been arrested.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation and Santa Cruz County District Attorney's Office are investigating the case. The FBI is probing a possible link to last month's fatal shooting of a federal officer in Oakland, ABC reported Sunday.

Another deputy was hospitalized after he was either shot or struck with bomb shrapnel, Hart said Saturday. Carillo also struck that deputy with a car as Carillo drove out of a driveway, Hart said. The sheriff's office is hopeful that the deputy will recover.

Gutzwiller, a patrol sergeant, was a graduate of Aptos High School, and was married with a two-year-old son and another on the way, Hart said. He started out with the Santa Cruz County Sheriff's Office as a volunteer and has served the sheriff's office since 2006.

A fundraiser for Gutzwiller's family had raised more than $36,000 as of Sunday afternoon.

The sheriff's office extolled Gutzwiller as a "courageous, intelligent, sensitive and a caring man" in a written statement.

The Santa Cruz County Sheriff's Office has not seen an officer killed in the line of duty since Deputy Michael Gray's death in 1983, Hart said Saturday.

Gov. Gavin Newsom also issued a statement late Saturday, offering condolences to Gutzwiller's family, friends and coworkers.

"He will be remembered as a hero who devoted his life to protecting the community and as a loving husband and father," Newsom said.

Watch Sunday's full vigil here: