AP
PALM SPRINGS, Calif. — SWAT officers have surrounded a house in Palm Springs, Calif., where a man who fatally shot two police officers may still be inside, Police Chief Bryan Reyes said.
Three officers were trying to resolve a family dispute Saturday when a man killed two of them and wounded the third, Reyes said.
Reyes told reporters the officers were talking calmly to the man, trying to resolve things, when he suddenly opened fire on them.
Reyes said 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.
The chief also released more information on the slain officers. Lesley Zerebny, 27, had recently returned to the force from maternity leave and was the mother of a 4-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.
No update was given on the condition of a third wounded officer.
A police statement says the shooting occurred Saturday afternoon north of Racquet Club Road and east of Sunrise Way.
Dozens of police officers, several fighting back tears, gave somber salutes as the bodies of the two officers were loaded into hearses for transfer to a coroner’s office. The officers and numerous civilians gathered Saturday night outside the Palm Springs Desert Regional Medical Center, where Zerebny and Vega died of their wounds.
The officers’ flag-draped coffins were wheeled out of the hospital and gently placed in white hearses.
The shooting 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 said, 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 the murder.
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