Woman with gun killed by deputies in California mountains

BIG BEAR LAKE, Calif. (AP) — Sheriff’s deputies responding to a domestic violence call shot and killed a woman they said was armed with a handgun on a hiking trail near a home in Southern California mountains, authorities said.

Deputies called to a residence in rural Sugarloaf, near Big Bear Lake, around 1:30 a.m. Monday found a man with minor injuries to his hands and face, according to the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department.

The man said a woman had left the home in a vehicle and was armed with a handgun.

Deputies found the vehicle unoccupied near Maple Hill Trails, about a mile from the home, officials said.

They searched the area and found the woman, still armed with the gun, and “a lethal force encounter occurred,” a sheriff’s department statement said. The woman, identified only as a 30-year-old residence of Sugarloaf, died at the scene.

Investigators believe the woman did not fire back at the deputies, sheriff’s spokesperson Gloria Huerta told the Southern California News Group on Tuesday. Information on what led deputies to open fire was not immediately released.

No deputies were injured.