Land Management Officer Shoots Woman Off-Roading in Berdoo Canyon

An officer with BLM or the Bureau of Land Management officer shot a woman who was off roading on Berdoo Canyon off of Dillon Road. Riverside County Sheriff’s investigators responded Sunday at 11 p.m. but were in the remote canyon most of the day Monday.

“The preliminary investigation revealed at this time that the Bureau of Land Management officers responded to assist the Joshua Tree National Park Service ranger … with an illegal off roading failure to yield investigation,” said RSO Investigator Armado Muñoz.

He says they were trying to get the off roaders to stop, “A Bureau of Land Management officer attempted to stop the off road vehicle and an officer involved shooting occurred at that time,” he said that adding the female hurt was a passenger, “adult female that was in the off road vehicle was injured as a result of the shooting and transported to a local hospital for treatment of the non life threatening injuries that she suffered and a male adult was also detained at the scene.”

A friend of the victim who did not want to be identified tells KMIR the couple was riding a side by side off road vehicle and the woman shot is a nurse and would never threaten an officer.

Muñoz says armed officers patrol the federal lands and it’s important before you go off roading to know where you’re going, “Before you go out and use those vehicles to make sure that you are driving them in a place where it’s allowed … sometimes people go out and assume that it’s okay so we just encourage you to do some homework.”

Muñoz says the officer is on administrative leave until the investigation is complete.

We reached out to the Bureau of Land Management who deferred us to RSO who is charged with investigating this shooting but did send us helpful links to off-roading and maps.

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