Suspect dead after shootout at marijuana farm By MATT KAPKO Bay City News Service August 5, 2005 LOS GATOS -- One suspect is dead and a California Department of Fish and Game warden is being treated for a gunshot wound he suffered during a raid on a large marijuana grove near Los Gatos this morning. The warden suffered a gunshot wound that went through both his legs, Santa Clara County sheriff's Deputy Terrance Helm said today. The warden is expected to recover at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center in San Jose, where he was taken by helicopter. Soon after the warden was airlifted from the scene near Mount Umunhum, authorities reported that the suspect, who was in custody at the shooting site, had died. Helm said people guarding the remote marijuana farm ambushed the warden in a sudden eruption of gunfire around 7 a.m. The shooting occurred in steep and wild terrain, where a SWAT team of more than three dozen officers in camouflage was being dropped via helicopter to search for a second suspect. "The manhunt is still ongoing,'' Helm said. The danger of the manhunt and the difficulty of the terrain have slowed down rescue efforts, authorities said. Law enforcement agencies were first alerted to the site near the base of Mount Umunhum by staff with Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District, which owns and maintains a reserve in the area. The 17,000-acre open-space reserve surrounding Mount Umunhum is closed to the public, district Operations Manager John Maciel said today. "This is not the first one,'' Maciel said of the marijuana growing operation in the reserve. "We know what the hot spots are.'' Authorities found up to 10,000 marijuana plants in a mile-long area spread across two to three acres at the base of the mountain, officials said. Home