Even Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump responded to the shooting, saying via Twitter “Two policemen just shot in San Diego, one dead”.
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Is this a short-term spike or the end of a downward trend in cop deaths?
Zimmerman, who visited Irwin at the hospital, says police haven’t determined whether the shooting was premeditated.
Police arrested Jesse Michael Gomez, 52, shortly after the incident about 11:30 p.m. Thursday in the Chollas Creek ravine just south of the site of the shooting, Zimmerman said.
The officers reported they were making a stop and nearly immediately called for help.
“‘The investigation is ongoing right now as to exactly what happened”, Zimmerman told reporters at an early morning briefing outside Scripps Mercy Hospital. Jonathan DeGuzman, 43, died in the hospital, Zimmerman said. Immediately after, they called for emergency cover. “Seconds to a minute or so”.
Jonathan DeGuzman, a 16-year veteran of the force who was married with two children, suffered multiple gunshot wounds.
Responding officers immediately put one of the wounded officers into a patrol vehicle and rushed off to a hospital but efforts to save him failed.
Both officers were assigned to an elite anti-gang unit, police Chief Shelley Zimmerman said at a late morning news conference. His wife was at his side during surgery. A suspect was wounded and taken into custody a short time later and hours later police surrounded a home as they searched for an accomplice.
A suspect has been charged and another potential suspect is in custody in a “gut-wrenching” shooting in San Diego that left one officer dead and another injured, police said. A helicopter hovered over the neighborhood. Authorities also detonated several gas bombs at the scene to draw him out and used tools to break windows and pound on the roof. The possible suspect wasn’t there either.
He is survived by his wife and two young children.
She said Cassani was arrested outside a house that SWAT had surrounded for hours.
After visiting the wounded officer later at UC San Diego Medical Center, Zimmerman told reporters that the officer’s prospects for recovery were good. He is expected to make a full recovery and is anxious to get back on the job, according to Zimmerman.
“It is extremely hard, but something you have to do”, she told reporters outside Scripps Mercy Hospital.
DeGuzman, who was a father-of-two, was described as a “loving, caring” husband and father who “talked about his family all the time”. “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 and he was not coming home, and nothing prepares you for that”. DeGuzman received the department’s purple heart for valor in that traffic stop.
Officials announced earlier that the other officer had died.
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“First thing I thought of was my cousin who’s a police officer”, Officer Kepner said.
