Three police officers were shot dead and two more wounded Saturday as they responded to a domestic disturbance call at a Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, home where a man wearing a bulletproof vest opened fire, police said.
The officers had been called out to the house following reports of a disturbance, but came under fire from a man inside, triggering a four-hour standoff.
“Our hearts and our prayers go out to the officers who paid the ultimate sacrifice,” Police Chief Nathan Harper said in a televised press conference.
“It’s a very sad day for the Pittsburgh police bureau. We have never had to lose three officers in a line of duty at one time in one call.”
Harper said the shooter, identified as 23-year-old Richard Poplawski, fired at the officers several dozen times using a high-powered assault rifle before he was finally wounded and then surrendered.
“He had one assault rifle and one long-arm rifle as well as one pistol and a lot of ammo,” Harper had said earlier.
The first officers were cut down immediately upon entering the house, leading Harper to say he believed they were victims of a trap set by the gunman.
“As soon as the officer stepped through the doorway, he was immediately met with gunfire,” Harper said. He and a second officer who came through the doorway were both shot in the head.
Harper said the gunman, who has been hospitalised, will be charged with three counts of homicide. Killing a police officer is punishable by death in the state of Pennsylvania.
Mayor Luke Ravenstahl said the shooting — which marked the first Pittsburgh police officer deaths since 1995 — stunned the city and its police force.
“The whole bureau of police today is very sombre, very angry about this senseless act of violence that occurred,” Ravenstahl said. “But we will move on, we will unite.”
The killings mark the latest spasm of gun violence in the United States, which has been rocked by six fatal mass shootings in the past three weeks, including the killing of four Oakland, California, police officers on March 21.
The Pittsburgh attack also comes a day after a recently unemployed man stormed an immigrant services centre where he had been learning English in Binghamton, New York and went on a murderous rampage, killing 13 people before taking his own life.
Harper said investigators were hunting for a motive for the gruesome crimes.
A picture of Poplawski slowly began to emerge, with local news reports describing him as a high school dropout who subsequently joined the US Marines but was dishonourably discharged. He was described as living with his mother and grandmother.
The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review said on its website that police were called to the scene by Poplawski’s mother just before 7:00 am. He surrendered at about 11:00 am.
One of the gunman’s friends from high school, Edward Perkovic, said Poplawski called him Saturday morning just moments before the shooting, according to the Tribune-Review.
“He said, ‘Eddie, I’m going to die today. Tell your family that I love them, and I love you.’ Then I heard a bunch of gunshots,” Perkovic said.
