Another call for gun control?
An early-morning shootout between police and a man armed with an AK-47 in Killeen, Texas Sunday leaves one police officer dead and another wounded. The suspect was also killed during the events of the night.
Members of the Killeen SWAT team, the officers were attempting to negotiate with the man who had barricaded himself in his apartment. The police were responding to a 911 call placed earlier, when the suspect had been threatening people with a gun at the apartment complex pool.
When the police arrived the suspect reportedly fired one shot, and then showed signs of surrender. He put the gun down and starting to walk out of his apartment with his hands in the air. However, he never made it out of his apartment. When the police tried to arrest him he picked the gun back up and opened fire, hitting two police officers before other members of the SWAT team could return fire.
The suspect was killed, and the two officers who were hit were taken to a nearby hospital in critical condition. One officer was pronounced dead from the gunshot wounds shortly after, and the other was later transferred to another hospital, where he underwent surgery for the gunshot wound in his leg.
While the names of the suspect and police officers involved have not been released, police Chief Dennis Baldwin issued a statement. “Early this morning, this community experienced the loss of one of Killeen’s finest,” he said. “The days ahead will be challenging, but for now, we are mourning the loss of a great officer. Our hearts and prayers go out to the officer’s family during this difficult time.”
This is only the second time a Killeen law enforcement officer was killed in the line of duty, the last instance occurring nearly a century ago when a City Marshal was shot while trying to intervene in a shootout between a father and son.
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