California officer dead, another wounded as standoff continues

A standoff between police and an armed suspect that killed one officer and wounded another remains underway Saturday morning in Pomona, California, near Los Angeles, more than 12 hours after it began.

The suspect is barricaded inside an apartment home after fatally shooting one officer and wounding another, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.

“It is with a heavy heart that I must report that one officer did not survive,” Pomona police Chief Michael Olivieri tweeted early Saturday morning. “The second officer is in stable condition.”

News footage from CNN affiliate KABC shows a heavy police presence, including a SWAT team. At least five gunshots can be heard. Video from the scene also shows officers apparently attempting to revive a wounded comrade using CPR.

Both officers were transported to a nearby hospital. Olivieri later tweeted that a police escort will take the officer’s body from the hospital to the Los Angeles County coroner’s office.

There have been no other injuries or deaths since the two police officers were struck by the suspect’s gunfire just after 9 Friday night, Deputy Trina Schrader of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department told CNN.

KABC reported that the shootout may have begun after the suspect evaded police in a pickup, crashed and fled into the apartment building.

There have been 17 officers shot to death in the first 10 weeks of 2018, including an officer killed Tuesday in Missouri. Officer Christopher Ryan Morton, 30, was killed after being dispatched to the wrong house, a Missouri Highway Patrol official said.

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