On April 21, 1958, Deputy Sheriff Robert Shultz, 35, was shot and killed while on duty in the Dana Point area. Patrol Deputies Ed Johnson and Robert Shultz stopped an old converted school bus from Arizona on information it contained a mentally disturbed father threatening his wife, daughter and two sons.
After stopping the northbound bus in Dana Point, Deputy Johnson talked the father into putting his weapon down and leaving the bus. As Deputy Johnson was talking with the father outside the bus, Deputy Shultz was fatally shot once through the heart by the older of two sons inside the bus. Deputy Johnson was also shot twice, critically. The father returned to the bus and a gunfight ensued with the one critically wounded officer.
After a period of firing by both sides, the Deputy collapsed from his two initial wounds but not before radioing for assistance. On the arrival of assisting officers, the father was found dead, wounded three times by the officer's bullets and once, through the head, by his own. The older son was found with five wounds from the Deputy's weapon and died at the hospital. The younger son was found dead with one round through the top of his head from the father's weapon.
The second Orange County Deputy Sheriff had given his life as a result of gunfire. His partner still carries two .22 caliber slugs located in inaccessible parts of his back and hip.
