Illegal Alien Accused of Attempting to Kill Police Officer After Being Released by Sanctuary State California

An illegal alien accused of attempting to kill a California police officer has been captured by Merced County, California law enforcement officials after previously being released by police due to the state’s sanctuary state law.

Guadalupe Lopez Herrera, a 51-year-old illegal alien, was arrested by the Merced County Sheriff’s Office, according to the Merced Sun-Star, after allegedly shooting and attempting to kill a Merced County Sheriff sergeant.

The sergeant who was shot is “recovering well,” Merced County Sheriff Vern Warnke told the local media, from the gunshot wound he sustained above one of his knees.

Herrera was first put on Merced County law enforcement’s radar after police said he made threats against the lives of his wife’s family. Police staked outside Herrera’s home and eventually sought to take him into custody for multiple domestic violence accusations.

When police showed up at Herrera’s home on Wednesday, though, the illegal alien began shooting at officers through a fence on the property. This is when the sergeant, who has not been named yet, was hit by a gun shot above his knee. The officer was also hit on his bullet-proof vest, a shot that could have been fatal.

After fleeing the property in a truck, Herrera dumped his truck and stole a white pickup truck before fleeing once again, leading police on a high-speed chase that lasted anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour. During this chase, the illegal alien fired gunshot rounds at California Highway Patrol officers.

Warnke told local media that Herrera had previously been in law enforcement custody but that they were unable to turn him over to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency because of California’s sanctuary state law, which shields criminal illegal aliens from deportation.

“We had him in our custody in January of this year, and because of the folks in Sacramento limiting our ability to cooperate with ICE, we could not turn him over,” Warnke said. “This kind of rings of what happened to Ronil Singh in Newman.”

“Not only has this guy been a proven danger prior to this incident, the attempted murder of one of my sergeants, the attempted murder of a California Highway Patrol officer because of this when he should have been not in this country and placed back in the country of origin,” Warnke said.

In January, Herrera allegedly threatened to kill his wife and her three children with a kitchen knife. The woman asked a judge for a restraining order against the illegal alien as she feared for her life and the life of her children.

The woman told the judge that Herrera had “strangled me and [threatened to kill me,” according to the Merced Sun-Star. The woman alleged that Herrera threatened to kill himself and even bashed his head into a refrigerator before showing the injury to one of her children, saying “Look what your mother did to me.”

After being released in January from police custody, a warrant was issued for the illegal alien’s arrest on August 7.

John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder.