DeGuzman, a 16-year SDPD veteran, was pronounced dead later in the night.
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San Diego Police Chief Shelley Zimmerman also said investigators were looking for no additional suspects in Thursday night’s incident, in which two members of her department’s anti-gang squad were gunned down.
The gunmen in Louisiana and Texas, both military veterans, apparently acted in retaliation for the high-profile deaths of a number of black men at the hands of police in confrontations that have heightened racial tensions in the United States and given rise to the Black Lives Matter movement.
The department tweeted that one suspect was in custody and other possible suspects were being sought.
The two officers radioed in that they were making a traffic stop late Thursday, then called for emergency backup soon after, she said.
They were part of the San Diego PD Gang Suppression team, but there was no word on any motive for the shooting or whether it was an ambush, police told CBS News.
“I can tell you he is a loving, caring husband, father”.
The shooting came as law officers around the country are on high alert following the killing of officers in Dallas and Baton Rouge, La., this month.
One officer was killed and another hospitalized after a traffic stop turned deadly Thursday evening in southeast San Diego. Responding officers put one of the wounded officers into a patrol vehicle and rushed off to a hospital but efforts to save him failed.
DeGuzman received the purple heart in 2003 after he was stabbed by a man he had stopped for speeding.
Zimmerman says the gang suppression officers reported they were making the stop shortly before 11 p.m. Thursday and nearly immediately radioed for emergency cover.
Police arrested a second man, 41-year-old Marcus Antonio Cassani, on an unrelated warrant.
“Until more information becomes available, we’re not going to tie it to anything else”, Zimmerman said at a news conference at UC San Diego Medical Center, where Irwin is recovering. Zimmerman said an operation was carried out in which forces surrounded a house where a “potential second suspect may be inside”. Police did not identify him and his condition was unknown.
Kepner said he called his cousin to see if she was ok and braced for the worst.
“I was able to at that time tell his wife that he was going to be OK and, as I was driving over there that night, I knew I was going to have to make the notification that he was not going to be OK, he was not coming home, and nothing prepares you for that”, Zimmerman said.
Authorities detonated several devices at the scene that made deafening booms. He cared. He came to work every single day just wanting to make a positive difference in his community.
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Rest in peace, Officer DeGuzman.
