The 42-year-old Tarentino was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
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Massachusetts State Police Colonel Richard McKeon said he was extremely proud of the investigation and operation to find Zambrano. The shooting sparked a statewide manhunt for Zambrano, who was shot and killed by police about 18 hours later after he fired at them from a bedroom closet inside a duplex apartment in Oxford, injuring a state trooper, according to state officials.
The apartment was initially cleared because police did not locate the suspect.
Officials said they had “developed information” that Zambrano was at the duplex in Oxford, about 7 miles south of Auburn.
As they entered, a closet door “burst open”, and the suspect emerged firing at the officers, McKeon said.
The State Trooper, whose name has not been released, but is an 18-year veteran and former Navy SEAL, was shot in the left shoulder and wounded after engaging Zambrano.
Phillip Stanikmas told the Worcester Telegram & Gazette that Tarentino kept an eye out for his 91-year-old mother when she was home alone.
MASSACHUSETTS-Funeral and wake arrangements were announced for slain Auburn Police Officer Ronald Tarentino, who was shot during a traffic stop early Sunday morning in Auburn. Officers “returned fire and struck the suspect, inflicting life-threatening injuries”, he said.
Investigators don’t know the motive for Tarentino’s killing, according to Paul Jarvey, a spokesman for the Worcester County district attorney’s office.
The State Trooper shot in a gunfight with suspected cop-killer Jorge Zambrano underwent surgery at UMass Memorial Medical Center Sunday night and remains hospitalized, a State Police spokesperson said Monday, May 23.
Officials said Zambrano fled the scene after the shooting.
In 2015, traffic stops were the leading circumstance that ended with an officer being shot and killed, the National Law Enforcement Memorial Fund said. Authorities said Zambrano was released from the Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center in Shirley in 2013 after serving seven years on charges including cocaine trafficking, two counts of assault and battery on a police officer, and two counts of resisting arrest.
“We are devastated for his family”, Sluckis said. “The residents of Auburn have lost a dedicated and courageous public servant”, Sluckis said. Even as the number of officers who have been killed has fallen, these officers and their family members say they are increasingly anxious amid a greater focus on police who use deadly force. “And I know some of you are aware of this but I ask that you all keep Officer Tarentino and his family in your thoughts and prayers because they’re on that hard road now”, Lynch said during remarks on the state of policing around the country.
A liaison officer from the Auburn police has been assigned to the Tarentino family until the officer is buried, Sluckis said.
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Tarentino, who joined the Auburn Police Department two years ago, is survived by his wife and three children.
