BORING, Ore. -- The suspect in the killing of a Clackamas County weighmaster early this year was captured in Los Angeles, after a police shooting, authorities said.
Dirck Morgan White, 41, fired at LAPD officers on Sunday night and they fired back, wounding him, according to Sgt. Nathan Thompson with the Clackamas County Sheriff's Office.
The Calif. officers were chasing White on foot and trying to capture him for allegedly stealing a car when the shots rang out, Thompson said.
Investigators believe that back on Feb. 6, White, of Edgefield, Wash., shot and killed weighmaster Grady Waxenfelter along Highway 224 near Southeast Amisigger Road on Feb. 6 and then fled the scene. A large manhunt followed, but the suspect got away.
White is now listed in critical condition at Cedars-sinai Medical Center, where he was taken after the Hollywood, Calif. shooting. He is under police guard. No officers were injured in the shooting.
"We just didn't want this guy to kill anybody else," said Richard Waxenfelter, Grady's dad. "He would've killed anyone in uniform."
When he is released from the hospital, White will be facing attempted murder of a police officer charges and fugitive from justice charges in the Calif. arrest, along with the Oregon charges.
Authorities had been offering a $25,000 reward for information leading to White's arrest in the Waxenfelter case.
Police said White was driving a truck loaded with firewood when he was stopped by the county weighmaster, who was not armed. Investigators said White may have thought Waxenfelter, 47, was a police officer.
On April 5, White's Mercedes sedan was spotted in Iowa. A citizen reported that a person inside the car was firing shots out of the vehicle, according to Sgt. Thompson. But the suspected eluded police in that incident as well.
White was also wanted for weapons charges and questioning about a child rape case in Washington state.
Waxenfelter was married with three children. Earlier this year, his widow received $700,000 in a settlement for the wrongful death lawsuit she had filed against the county. Some changes were also made to protect weighmasters after Waxenfelter's death and prevent people from mistaking them for police officers.
Clackamas County was fined $2,100 by OSHA for putting Waxenfelter at risk. An investigation by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration later determined that his work vehicle looked too much like a police car.
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