Aug. 22 (UPI) -- A manhunt was underway in Southern California Thursday for a sniper who authorities say shot a Los Angeles County sheriff's deputy.
Investigators said deputy Angel Reinosa was shot Wednesday walking to his vehicle at the sheriff's station in Lancaster, Calif., 45 miles due north of Los Angeles. He received only minor injuries because he wore a bulletproof vest.
The 21-year-old Reinosa has been a Los Angeles County deputy for about a year.
"He was getting ready to take that vest off," Lancaster Mayor R. Rex Parris said. "Had he done so, it would've been a much more tragic situation."
Authorities believe the shooter lives in a government-subsidized apartment across the street from the sheriff's station, which shares a parking lot with a mental health facility.
"They let people live in our apartment complex who have mental illness," resident Terrisa McGhee told KABC-TV. "The cops are in there constantly. So it's not a surprise."
"Let's call it was it is. Why do you put mentally ill people in a four-story apartment building across from the sheriff's department?" Parris asked.
Authorities checked the apartment complex and evacuated some residents. Two people were detained for being uncooperative, officials said.
Investigators are trying to determine precisely which apartment the shot came from.
