PALM SPRINGS, Calif. – The police chief in Palm Springs, California says two officers were fatally shot, and another was wounded trying to resolve family dispute.
Police Chief Bryan Reyes told reporters the officers were talking calmly to the man, trying to resolve things when he suddenly opened fire on them.
Reyes says he’s holding off on revealing the suspect’s name until he confers with the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department, which is now heading the shooting investigation.
He says SWAT officers have surrounded a house in Palm Springs, California where the man who fatally shot two officers may still be inside.
The chief, his voice breaking, identified the fatally wounded officers as Jose Gilbert Vega and Lesley Zerebny.
Twenty-seven-year-old Lesley Zerebny had recently returned to the force from maternity leave and was the mother of a four-month-old daughter.
Jose Gilbert Vega, a father of eight, was a 35-year veteran of the force who was scheduled to retire in December.
Dozens of law enforcement officers are involved in a search for the shooter or shooters, The Desert Sun newspaper reported.
Gerardo Barrera told the newspaper was working nearby in the quiet residential neighbourhood when he heard gun shots. “I saw a person on the ground,” he said. “Someone kept pumping her chest but she wasn’t moving.”
The shooting, which comes days after a Los Angeles County sheriff’s sergeant was shot and killed in the high desert town of Lancaster.
Sgt. Steve Owen was answering a burglary call when sheriff’s officials say he was shot and wounded by a man who then stood over him and shot him four more times.
A paroled robber has been charged with murder.