Crime & Safety

Bank Robber Who Led Murrieta Police on Chase is Denied Surgery

Two months after his arrest, a man shot by sheriff's deputies and held in jail still has bullets in his body.

A man who was shot by a Murrieta police officer and sheriff's deputies is being denied surgery to remove bullets from his body, his attorney said.

Murrieta Police were the first to pursue Walter Scott Sherwood, 56, in a high-speed chase after he allegedly robbed a Temecula bank. The chase ended in Menifee with Sherwood being shot by deputies after they said he allegedly pointed a gun at them.

Sherwood has a bullet lodged in his diaphragm, a bullet fragment in his abdomen and a stint that was supposed to be temporary in an artery in his leg, said Leah Kisner, his attorney.

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“He’s put in numerous requests,” she said during a hearing today. “When he makes the requests, he’s pretty much ignored.”

Sherwood is being held at Robert Presley Detention Center on $120,000 bail, according to jail records.

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The stint was put in when a deputy shot Sherwood’s leg, severing an artery. It since outlived its usefulness, and now the defendant lost the feeling in his leg, Kisner said.

The problem is serious, according to the attorney. “You could lose part of your leg,” Kisner said. “Just because you’re in custody doesn’t mean you don’t deserve medical treatment.”

Sherwood was pushed into the courtroom in a wheelchair today after other defendants, shackled around the wrists and ankles, walked in.

In the past, the jail physician only saw Sherwood when the court ordered it, she told the judge. If the physician continues to deny treatment, she planned to issue a writ of habeas corpus. The writ will force the jail physician to either explain why Sherwood’s treatment was denied or let him see an outside physician. The defendant is a veteran and can get service through a VA hospital, the attorney said.

“It’s a cattle prod to get them to do something,” Kisner said of the writ.

Judge Kelly L. Hansen issued a court order today requiring the jail physician to see Sherwood and consider him for surgery.

Sherwood was charged with felony robbery, burglary and committing a felony within five years of being released from prison. He was convicted of drug possession and drunken driving from a previous incident and was recently charged with burglary and shoplifting in another unrelated incident, according to court records.

The robbery happened at 1:30 p.m. on Dec. 6 at the Pacific Western Bank in the Town Center Plaza on Ynez Road, sheriff’s officials said.

Sherwood passed a note to a bank teller saying he had a gun and demanded money, according to sheriff’s officials. Sherwood sped away in a rental car through Murrieta and into Menifee with law enforcement close behind, sheriff’s officials said.

Sherwood crashed into another car in the 28000 block of Del Monte Drive, jumped out of his car and ran out onto the Cherry Hills Golf Course. Patrol cars and a helicopter swarmed the area, and investigators began a house-to-house search, officials said.

Four sheriff’s deputies and a Murrieta police officer found Sherwood hiding behind a house. He allegedly pointed a silver handgun at them, so they opened fire, sheriff’s officials said.

Sherwood ran onto the golf course again, but he collapsed between Worcester and Ridgemoor roads with a gunshot wound in his leg. His gun turned out to be a replica, and nobody else was hurt in the incident, officials said.


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