Luis 'Jerry' Ortiz, 35, sheriff's deputy killed by a gang member

Deputy Luis Gerardo "Jerry" Ortiz, a 35 year-old Latino, was shot and killed on June 24, 2005.

Ortiz, a gang officer, was interviewing a woman and a man outside a Hawaiian Gardens apartment when a gunman burst out of the residence, put a handgun to the officer's face and fired, authorities said.

Authorities said Ortiz probably died instantly.

"This was an assassination of a deputy," Sheriff Lee Baca said. "It was a sudden attack that gave the deputy no chance."

In 2007, Ortiz's shooter, Jose Luis Orozco, a 29-year-old Latino, was sentenced to death by a Norwalk jury. The jury had found him guilty of first-degree murder with the special circumstances of murder of a police officer and possession of a firearm by a felon.

"This is the kind of person and the kind of crime that the death penalty was made for," said Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley at the time of the sentencing.

Sheriff's Deputy Timothy Brennan, who had been Ortiz's partner for a year, called the verdict bittersweet. He explained, "You feel good, but it's never going to bring Jerry back to his family and friends."

A 15-year department veteran, Ortiz had hoped to become a detective.

He had married two weeks before the shooting, and had won a department medal of honor for fatally shooting a suspected carjacker who had pulled a gun on him and his partner.

Oct. 5, 2016: This post was updated with details of the shooting and verdict.

Photo: Commander David Betke of the Los Angeles Sheriff's Dept listens during a press conference on Ortiz's death. (Gary Friedman / Los Angeles Times)