“I think justice was served today”, McKeon said, adding that Zambrano had an extensive criminal history.
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Police began searching for the suspect early Sunday after Auburn, Mass., officer Ronald Tarentino Jr. was fatally shot during a traffic stop around 12:30 a.m. ET.
“The suspect had been hiding in a closet, apparently after sneaking into that side of the duplex from the adjoining residence at 31 Watch Street”, State Police said. A state trooper was injured during a gunfire exchange with Zambrano but is expected to recover.
Zambrano fled in the vehicle, state police said.
“We are devastated for his family”, said Auburn Police Chief Andrew J. Sluckis Jr. That vehicle is in a secured police facility and will also be processed for evidence.
Residents in Tarentino’s Leicester neighborhood remember him as a pleasant family man.
He was hurt during the search for 35-year-old Jorge Zambrano, who was found in a second-floor bedroom of a duplex in Oxford.
Massachusetts State Police did not immediately return a request for comment. The trooper is an 18-year veteran and former U.S. Navy Seal.
Tarentino is survived by his wife and three sons.
An hourslong manhunt following the fatal shooting of a MA police officer has come to an end.
On Sunday evening, hundreds of people, many holding American flags, lined Main Street in Leicester, Mass., as Tarentino’s body was brought to a local funeral home.
Neighbors of a MA police officer who was fatally shot during a traffic stop are mourning his death. Auburn is about 45 miles southwest of Boston.
This story has been corrected to show Tarentino had been with the Auburn police for two years, not three. The officer was taken to UMass Memorial Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead. The town’s residents left bouquets of flowers and miniature American flags piled at the bottom of a stone monument dedicated to law enforcement officers who’ve been killed in the line of duty.
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The chief said no details of the “intensive investigation” into apprehending the shooter are being released “at this time”.
