Wahlenmaier and Bejar are being hailed as heroes.

Bejar remained on life support Friday at Community Regional Medical Center in Fresno. His sister, Maricela Chavez, said doctors told her that there is no hope for recovery.

"But we are praying and hoping for a miracle -- a miracle that only God can make," she said.

Reedley Police Chief Steve Wright grimly stated at a news conference Friday that Bejar was the first officer that the department has lost in its 100-year history. He called it a "dark, dark day in the city of Reedley."

The Reedley Police Department was closed to the public on Friday, and most officers were in Fresno for a debriefing. Officers from several surrounding agencies filled in.

Fresno County Sheriff Margaret Mims said her department is reeling from Wahlenmaier's death. "We are all hurting right now," she said.

Harris, the injured sheriff's deputy, has been released from the hospital and is recovering.

Authorities had come to Liles' mobile home Thursday morning with a search warrant because he was suspected of setting a series of fires in the Minkler area and also was a suspect in half a dozen recent shootings, including one that injured a neighbor.

Seven sheriff's deputies and four state fire investigators went to the mobile home to serve the warrant.

Mims said the investigators had planned for how they would serve the warrant.

She said they were armed and were wearing protective vests when they approached the home.

"Unfortunately, things don't always go as planned," Mims said.

A normal life

A divorce file in Fresno County Superior Court shows that Liles, a former security guard, lived what appeared to be a stable and likely middle-class life during a 12-year marriage to his previous wife, Sandy Liles.

They were married in October 1987. A daughter was born in early 1990. By the time they legally separated in mid-2000, they had purchased a Reedley home and filled it with appliances, furniture and a piano.

Sandy Liles received most of the household possessions in the divorce settlement, as well as a 1988 Honda Accord. She also took possession of two checking accounts, a certificate of deposit and an individual retirement account.

Ricky Liles got a 1999 Chevrolet pickup, a tool chest and tools, gardening equipment, an air compressor -- as well as police scanners, a gun safe and five handguns, four rifles and gun parts.

The couple also had debts, which were split. They had joint custody of their daughter, though she lived with Sandy Liles. Ricky Liles agreed to pay $200 a month until the girl reached adulthood.

The divorce was finalized in July 2000. At that time, court records show Ricky Liles was living in Dinuba.

Carol Knoy of Dinuba said she was stunned when she heard that Liles, her former neighbor, had killed a sheriff's deputy.

He was "a super-nice guy when he was young," she said. "I was so shocked he would go off the deep end. In this economy, you expect crazy things, but not this."

A day like any other

When Wahlenmaier left for work Thursday, he told his wife matter-of-factly that he would be assisting in serving a warrant in Minkler.

It was not something he seemed overly concerned about, said Barbie Turner, his sister-in-law.

"He left that morning, told her he loved her and that was it," Turner said.

But within a few hours, Wahlenmaier was dead.

He was a Fresno High School graduate and attended California State University, Fresno. In June 1998, he was hired by the Sheriff's Office. In his latest assignment, he investigated homicides and other violent crimes.