FORT BRAGG, Calif.?? A man suspected in the fatal shootings of a Fort Bragg councilman and a county land trust official was shot dead Saturday afternoon during a massive manhunt in the redwood forests of Northern California, authorities said.
A member of the Sacramento County Sheriff's Department SWAT team shot and killed Aaron Bassler, 35, the Sacramento Bee newspaper reported.
Bassler had been sought since Councilman Jere Melo and a second man separately confronted him while investigating reports of an illegal marijuana farm outside of town.
Police said Bassler was cultivating some 400 poppy plants and was holed up in a makeshift bunker when he fired on the 69-year-old Melo and a co-worker who escaped and called for help.
Bassler was also wanted in the fatal shooting of Matthew Coleman of the Mendocino County Land Trust. The former Fish and Game Department employee was found dead next to his car on Aug. 11 up the coast from Fort Bragg.
Dozens of local and federal authorities scoured the forests near Fort Bragg in one of the area's largest manhunts in decades, but Bassler eluded them for more than a month. A surveillance photo showed that he was armed with a high-powered rifle, and he was believed to have broken into several cabins to steal food and at least two other weapons.
Earlier, authorities said Bassler appeared to have broken into another cabin to replenish his supplies, authorities said Saturday.
Bassler had been sought by some 50 agents from across the state, as well as U.S. Marshals and SWAT team members, who are working in 36-hour shifts in the search, the Bee said.
The 7,000 residents of Fort Bragg had been on edge while the manhunt has enveloped their coastal fishing and lumber community. The area is frequented by tourists in this coastal community about three hours north of San Francisco.
Posters seeking his capture hang in the windows of most shops in this fishing and lumber town, where authorities told residents to stay out of their vacation cabins until Bassler was arrested.
The details of Bassler's death were not immediately released. Mendocino County authorities said in a release earlier Saturday that they had "located" him, but refused to elaborate pending a news conference.
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44743207/ns/us_news-crime_and_courts/
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