Riverside County supervisors agreed Tuesday to post a $100,000 reward for information leading to the capture of whoever tried to kill anti-gang officers at their headquarters in Hemet.

A pair of attacks has targeted officers at a facility occupied by a San Jacinto/Hemet Gang Task Force facility in recent weeks.

"We need to bring these heinous thugs and criminals to justice," said

Supervisor Jeff Stone, in whose district the attacks occurred. "Riverside County is not going to condone this murderous activity."

A week earlier, a member of the task force, which is composed of sheriff’s deputies and other law enforcement officials, was opening a gate at the team’s new office in the 500 block of St. John Place in Hemet when he was nearly struck by a bullet.

According to Hemet police, the projectile was part of a booby trap triggered when the gate moved.

The rig was not "an immediately recognizable firearm, but an improvised, homemade device capable of firing an actual bullet," said Hemet police Lt. Duane Wisehart, adding that the slug was found in a parking lot about 100 yards away.

On Dec. 31, authorities discovered that a natural gas line on the roof of the task force’s headquarters building had been redirected into the facility, filling it with gas, which could have caused an explosion.

"All it would’ve Advertisement

Shriners Hospital for Children taken is a match or a temperature control device setting off a spark (to trigger a detonation)," Stone said. "It not only could have killed the officers, but taken out a whole block, killing many, many innocent people."

Stone blamed area gangs for the attacks.

"This is a war," he said.

Hemet police investigators are seeking witnesses. Anyone with more information was asked to call (951) 765-2400.

As a result of the attacks, the anti-gang squad is reportedly moving from its Hemet headquarters to an undisclosed location.

The reward money will come out of the county’s general fund and could be divided if there is more than one informant leading authorities to multiple defendants, Stone said.

According to board Chairman Marion Ashley, the last time the county posted a reward this size was shortly after the Esperanza wildfire in October 2006. The county’s $100,000 offer for information leading to an arrest and conviction was matched by several other entities and eventually climbed to just over $500,000, the supervisor said.

Raymond Lee Oyler, a former Beaumont mechanic, was convicted and sentenced to death for setting the monster wildfire that killed five U.S. Forest Service firefighters.

Because investigators were able to identify Oyler without the help of tipsters, the reward was not disbursed, Ashley said.

"It was a good incentive," he said.