Monthly Archives: January 2012
AP: Senators seek to give police tools to identify drugged drivers
Teen stabbed in arm in Monrovia
Police: Condition of Monrovia girl struck by car improving
Auto theft suspects arrested in Pasadena
AP: Officer fatally shot by fellow cops in Santa Maria
SANTA MARIA — A police officer under investigation for sexual misconduct with a minor was shot and killed by fellow officers Saturday as they tried to arrest him on California’s central coast, authorities said.
The officer was on duty at a DUI checkpoint shortly after 1 a.m. when he was shot, Santa Maria police Chief Danny Macagni said in a statement.
The officer, a four-year department veteran, had just learned of the internal investigation of an alleged sexual relationship with a 17-year-old girl, and it became necessary to arrest him immediately, Macagni said.
Officers were sent to arrest him but he resisted them when they arrived, first putting up a physical fight, then pulling and firing his gun but hitting no one, Macagni said.
Several officers came to help the police making the arrest, and one of them shot the suspected officer in the chest once, Macagni said.
“He chose to resist, to remove his weapon,” Macagni said at a news conference, according to the Santa Maria Times. “We’re saddened by the whole incident.”
The wounded officer was taken to Marian Medical Center in Santa Maria, where he was declared dead, the chief said.
Macagni said police had expressed condolences to the officer’s family.
The officer who filed the fatal shot, a department veteran of about eight years, has been placed on administrative leave, and the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Department was investigating the shooting, Macagni said. Both moves are customary in shootings involving police.
The name of the officer killed has not been released because some family members were still being notified, and the name of the officer who fired the shot was withheld while the incident was under investigation, police said.
– From the Associated Press