Police Officer Richard Mason Hyche

Richard Mason Hyche

Police Officer Richard Hyche was shot and killed from ambush by a man with a rifle in the area of 916 Deodar Street.

An off-duty officer had spotted the man, who was wanted for murder, walking along I-10. When backup officers arrived they came under fire from the man who had made it to an apartment complex. When Officer Hyche arrived on the scene he stopped to ask a grounds person for information. As he was doing so the man shot him from the corner of one of the buildings. The suspect was eventually apprehended.

In April of 1976, the suspect, 23, was convicted of Officer Hyche's murder and another mans murder. He shot and killed his accomplice in an earlier robbery. He received a life sentence and a death sentence. The death sentence was later commuted to life. On February 21, 1986. he hid in the back of a prison truck and escaped from Vacaville Prison. On May 1, 1986, he was being tracked through mountains near Wolf Creek, Montana, when he opened fire on officers from a cabin he had broken into. He was killed by the officers return fire.

Officer Hyche had served with the Ontario Police Department for four years and had previously served with the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Office for two years. He was survived by his wife and three children.