Paso Robles shooting that seriously injured SLO County deputy remembered after one year

PASO ROBLES, Calif. - Thursday marked the one-year anniversary of a multi-day crime spree in Paso Robles that left a San Luis Obispo County Sheriff's deputy seriously wounded and another man dead.

It began during the early morning hours of June 10, 2020.

Officers responded to reports of gunfire around 3:15 a.m. near the Paso Robles Police Station on 10th Street.

Backup was immediately requested and gunfire continued to ring out in the direction of police cars in Paso.

About an hour after it all began, two SLO County Sheriff's deputies were ambushed while searching for the gunman and one deputy, identified as Nicholas Dreyfus, took a bullet to the head.

Dreyfus was quickly taken to the hospital before being airlifted to a trauma center where he was listed as being in serious but stable condition. He fortunately recovered and was welcomed out of the hospital with a police escort in late June.

The day after Dreyfus' injury, investigators found a man, identified as James Watson, had been shot and killed in the riverbed near the Amtrak station in Paso Robles.

Officers swarmed the area and began a second day of searching for the shooter along city streets and in the Salinas riverbed.

Officers eventually found the gunman the next day near Highway 46 and Ramada Drive. A shootout with police occurred and the man was killed.

The shooter was identified by sheriff's deputies as 26-year-old Mason James Lira, a transient from the Monterey area.

Two other officers, a deputy from Kings County and a CHP officer, were also injured in the crossfire but both have recovered.