Fundraiser held in honor of LA County sheriff's deputy slain in Palmdale

PALMDALE, Calif. (KABC) -- A fundraiser was held Saturday in Santa Clarita for the family of slain Los Angeles County Sheriff's Deputy Ryan Clinkunbroomer.

The event at Pocock Brewing Company was organized by a fellow deputy's wife and friend of Clinkunbroomer, 30, who was gunned down in an ambush-style attack while he was at a red light in his patrol vehicle on Sept. 16.

"He was a happy-go-lucky type of man," said Gloria Aguirre, a member of We Are LASD Wives. "His smile was so infectious, and everywhere he'd go he would light up the room."

Clinkunbroomer and his fiancée, Brittany Lindsey, had been engaged for four days when he was killed.

"I remember that day too, he kissed me goodbye, told me he loved me and I said, 'I'll see you later,'" Brittany Lindsey said in a "Good Morning America" interview last month, referring to the last time she saw him. But he "never came home."

Funeral services were held for Ryan Clinkunbroomer, the Los Angeles County sheriff's deputy who was gunned down in Palmdale.

"It was the happiest I'd ever seen him - and myself," Lindsey said.

The suspect in the killing, Kevin Cataneo Salazar, was arrested two days later after barricading himself inside a house for several hours.

Salazar, 29, was charged in the ambush shooting with one count of murder, plus special circumstance allegations of murder of a peace officer, murder committed by lying in wait, murder committed by firing from a car and personal use of a firearm. His attorney entered a plea of not guilty and a dual plea of not guilty by reason of insanity on his behalf.