Sheriff

Regarding $250,000 expenditure for presidential visit by Bush; I would like to express my disgust, for that money could have been better spent by the sheriff on people who are dying due to drugs. If the sheriff insists on putting politics over human beings, I feel sorry for him and Orange County. JAIME VEGA Santa Ana

Authorities have identified the body of a man found Saturday near Canyon Lake as John Joseph Garcia, 49, of Wildomar. The Riverside County Sheriff's Department said campers found the body about 12:40 p.m. in an unincorporated area north of Canyon Lake. He had been shot several times. Anyone with information is asked to contact the sheriff's central homicide unit at 951-955-2777. -- Bettina Boxall

Five Antelope Valley law enforcement officers were named officers of the year at an Antelope Valley Bar Assn. luncheon Friday. Los Angeles County Sheriff's Deputy Russ Brown, 43, a 20-year veteran who supervises patrol officers in Palmdale, was named the Antelope Valley station's deputy of the year. Brown has received numerous commendations for outstanding police work, including a 1986 incident in which he disarmed and subdued a man who entered the sheriff's station lobby armed with a shotgun.

Two people, including a Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department employee who was believed to be a bystander, were killed in a South Los Angeles shooting over the weekend, authorities said Sunday. Police discovered Adriana Pizarro, a 34-year-old sheriff's records clerk, about 9:15 p.m. Saturday in the 1200 block of East 50th Street. She was taken to USC Medical Center, where she died an hour later, police said. Pizarro worked in the sheriff's Compton station. Authorities believe Pizarro was an unintended victim and that Alexander Castro, 23, was the target of the attack.

The San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department is investigating the Saturday morning shooting deaths of two teenagers who had attended an all-night party at an abandoned military installation near Helendale, authorities said. The 16-year-old girl and 18-year-old man were last seen when the party, held at an old bunker more than a mile off California 58, broke up about 4 a.m., said sheriff's spokeswoman Arden Wiltshire. A friend found the bodies when he returned to the site Saturday afternoon after a parent reported one of the victims missing, Wiltshire said.