California

Benjamin Peter Ashley, 34, was struck by several rounds after he failed to comply with orders to drop the weapon as he walked toward foothills east of Bakersfield on Saturday, Kern County Sheriff Donny Youngblood told The Associated Press.

Ashley may have turned the 9 mm handgun on himself after being shot by the deputies, Youngblood said. An autopsy planned for Monday will determine the cause of death.

Twenty-three large fires, many sparked by lightning strikes, were burning across Northern California on Saturday, said state Department of Forestry and Fire Protection spokesman Daniel Berlant.

Some 8,000 firefighters were attempting to subdue them, something made incredibly difficult by several years of drought that have dried out California.

Police say Adrian Jerry Gonzalez lured Madyson Middleton from a courtyard where she had been riding her scooter over the weekend into his family's apartment where he attacked and killed her.

Gonzalez remains in custody at the Santa Cruz County juvenile detention center, where he has been held since being arrested Monday evening near a recycling bin where the girl's body had been dumped.