From left, Sgt. Mark Dunakin, Officer John Hege, Sgt. Dan Sakai and Sgt. Ervin Romans. The police said Sergeant Dunakin, 40, was killed at the traffic stop and Officer Hege, 41, was in "grave condition" at Highland Hospital on Saturday night. Sergeant Sakai, 35, and Sergeant Romans, 43, were killed in the later shootout.Photo: Oakland Police Department/Associated Press
Tough day for the families, the force and the city.
(CNN) -- At least three police officers in Oakland, California, were shot and killed Saturday afternoon after a man pulled over for a routine traffic stop opened fire and then battled SWAT officers at a nearby building, police said.The man, a 27-year-old Oakland resident, was later fatally shot in a shootout with a SWAT team in an apartment complex where he hid.A fourth officer -- also shot -- remained in critical condition, police said at a late-night news conference.California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's office differed from police, saying four officers had died in the shootings.
Authorities discovered the alleged gunman, 27-year-old LaVelle Mixon, had an extensive criminal history. At the time of the shooting, he was in violation of parole for assault with a deadly weapon, police said.
From The Times:
Three police officers in Oakland, Calif., were gunned down on Saturday and a fourth was critically wounded in an afternoon of violence that began with a routine traffic stop and ended with a grim 9 p.m. news conference to announce the toll of one of the worst days in the police department’s history....
“I’ve been to a lot of police funerals,” said Howard A. Jordan, the acting police chief. “This will be a pretty traumatic and daunting task for us as a department. It’s not going to be easy and it’s not going to happen tomorrow, but in the end, I think we will move on from this.”The news conference was attended by most members of the Oakland City Council as well as the former mayor, Jerry Brown, who is now the state’s attorney general.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger of California released a statement Saturday lamenting the deaths. “This is a tragic day for law enforcement officers everywhere,” Mr. Schwarzenegger said. “All four officers dedicated their lives to public safety and selflessly worked to protect the people of Oakland.”
Bummer, 4th officer died.
SAN FRANCISCO, California (CNN) — An Oakland, California, police officer who was critically injured in a weekend gun battle with a suspect has died, the Alameda County Coroner’s Office told CNN Tuesday.
John Hege, 41, had been pronounced brain dead on Sunday. Police initially had said he was the fourth officer to die after a gunman opened fire on police in two separate incidents. But they later clarified that, while Hege was pronounced brain dead, his body was being kept on life support until a decision could be made on an organ donation.
Our heart goes out to these brave brave hero's and our prayers goes out to you and your family's. Thank you for everything you have done for us. We Americans are blessed to have hero's out there to protect us. Now rest in peace and enjoy your stay in heaven and with God. And we pray for Officer Hege speedy recovery.
ReplyDeleteGod bless each and every member of our Law Enforcement, Fire Department, and our Military.
A Texas Family
anonymous,
ReplyDeletewell said.
Jesse and Al: The good people of Oakland's poor communities have lost 4 of the brave who cared about them. These offciers may have been white but they protected the African - American communities most vulnerable....please speak out against the culture that raised a cold-blooded murdering slimeball snake who hurt the community with his inhuman acts.
ReplyDeletewhere are all those protesters/activitists in Oscar Grant case? If you protest an accidental police shooting, why not now, a clear murder case of three in duty officers. I hope that they don't implicitly approve killing cops as acceptable.
ReplyDeleteIs it time to get out military involved at this point? I think we need to have out national guard out and army at this point if people are not going to follow basic law and rules I say we take them out. We can no longer tolorate this type of action from anyone our police are being pushed to the limit and should not be subject to this criminals who are in violation should be picked up by special military forces and if any does not cooperate then you should terminated this has gone too far we need special forces and we need them now how many more police need to die before we do something we have specially trained forces its time we use them
ReplyDeleteParoleling the slimball was the first mistake. How can you expect the National Guard too succeed if a SWAT team didn't? National Guard members are not trained killers,they are the Weekend Warriors. They are only forced to kill in Iraq.
ReplyDeleteHis family says he's not a "monster" but what type of animal would do something like this? Obviously, he was a monster. I think he was also a racist. Isn't that what he would have been called if the shooter was white and the police were black?
ReplyDelete