“It doesn’t look like it was random”.
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Galvez was nearing the end of his shift, according to Corina.
A number of people were detained and investigators were trying to determine if any of them were the suspects, Corina said.
Officers are now reviewing CCTV footage to assess what happened in the moments leading up to Galvez being killed.
Galvez who was raised in the area, was not married “but had a attractive family of mother, brothers, sisters”, Police Chief Carl Charles said.
Another officer heard the gunshots and pursued the suspects, who drove off into the neighbouring city of Montebello.
Galvez was a U.S. Marine and was deployed twice during Operation Enduring Freedom, Charles said.
A large perimeter was set up in the neighboring city of Montebello, where SWAT officers swept neighborhoods early Thursday.
The shooting occurred in the 8700 block of South Central Avenue at midnight, said Los Angeles police Lt. Laura Curtin.
He was on duty but driving his own vehicle when he arrived at the parking lot Wednesday night, Corina said, without elaborating on why he wasn’t in a department vehicle. It is thought that one more person is being hunted.
The vehicle in which Galvez was shot and killed was not a marked police vehicle, but officials wouldn’t confirm whether it was Galvez’s personal vehicle or an unmarked department vehicle.
“Words can not express the love we have for Ricky”, he said.
Downey is a city of about 110,000 residents 10 miles southeast of downtown Los Angeles.
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According to the National Law Enforcement Officers’ Fund there have been 112 police killings this year, including Galvez, compared with 101 in the whole of 2014.
