Deputies shoot, kill target of 2-week manhunt in California

RIDGECREST, Calif. — Sheriff’s deputies in California have shot and killed a man believed to be the target of a two-week manhunt in the rugged, mountainous high desert of Central California.

A spokesman for the Kern County Sheriff’s Department said that while an autopsy hasn’t been conducted, investigators believe the man killed in a confrontation Saturday was Benjamin Peter Ashley.

Dozens of officers have been searching in remote terrain about 30 miles east of Bakersfield for Ashley. He is suspected of killing a retired dentist, taking three men hostage and wounding two deputies during a crime spree that began July 28.

Authorities described him as a 34-year-old homeless man with a long criminal history.

The search area was dotted with unoccupied homes and trailers, outbuildings, abandoned mines and caves and other hiding places.