By KATY BRANDENBURG

The Union Democrat

Officers from the Tuolumne County Sheriff's Office and California Highway Patrol continue to investigate an officer-involved shooting that took place early Wednesday morning.

Police did not release the names of the officers involved. Larry James Derosset, 40, of Willow Street, Jamestown, who was shot at least twice, in the groin and legs, underwent surgery and was recovering from non-life-threatening injuries in police custody Wednesday evening, according to Lt. Dan Bressler of the sheriff's office.

Yellow crime scene tape sealed off the parking lot of the Tesoro gas station, at the corner of Rawhide Road and Highway 108 (formerly the Whistle Stop). Rawhide Road was closed until 5 p.m. Wednesday as investigators reconstructed the shooting, which occurred about 3 a.m., following a report of an armed robbery at the Tesoro station.

Sheriff's deputies and CHP officers chased Derossett into Woods Creek, where he then pulled out a handgun, and officers fired at him, Bressler said.

About 5 p.m. Tuesday, less than 10 hours before the attempted-robbery-turned-shooting, police took a report from Willow Street in Jamestown that Derossett tried to write a check to himself for $100 then signed the name Dale Dulin, according to police logs. Since he did not have an account at the bank where he was trying to cash the check, the person who later called police endorsed the check and used her bank account to cash it for him. The check bounced.

Sheriff's deputies also arrested Derossett in May 2006, on suspicion of burglary and attempting to cash a forged check — made out in his name for more than $900 — at the Money Mart in Sonora. The store employee called the maker of the check, Concrete Inc. in Stockton, who said Derossett used to work there and the check was a fake, according to a police report and Union Democrat archives. At that time Derossett also had two prior warrants charging him with forgery.

The last shooting involving Tuolumne County Sheriff's deputies took place in 2001, when a report of a possible drunken driver turned into a police chase that led from Pesce Way in Sonora to Italian Bar Road in Columbia. The driver, Steven Kent Baker, was taken to Tuolumne General Hospital, "reeking of alcohol," according to the story, and treated for gunshot wounds in both arms before being booked into jail. The names of the two deputies who shot Baker have not been released.