This is an updated report that is probably more accurate than previous ones. It contradicts earlier reports that the two cops had been shot through the door of the killer’s home. In fact, the officers had interviewed the sexual assault suspect for 20 minutes before he ambushed them as they were leaving.
SHERIFF: GUNMAN KILLED OFFICERS AFTER INTERVIEW AT HIS HOME
Santa Cruz police detectives spent about 20 minutes interviewing Jeremy Goulet before he ambushed them, shooting and killing them before they could call for help
By Stephen Baxter
Santa Cruz Sentinel
March 1, 2013
SANTA CRUZ, Calif. — Santa Cruz police detectives spent about 20 minutes interviewing Jeremy Goulet before he ambushed them, shooting and killing them before they could call for help, Santa Cruz County Sheriff Phil Wowak said Thursday.
Goulet, who had a plane ticket and passport in his possession, was under investigation for a break-in and alleged sexual assault of a former co-worker. He's also being investigated by the Sheriff's Office in connection with a sexual assault of a child, adding to an already lengthy list of sexual and violence-related arrests stemming back more than a decade, not all of which the Santa Cruz detectives were aware of at the time.
Sgt. Loran "Butch" Baker and detective Elizabeth Butler "did not have opportunity to call on the radio," Wowak said. "They barely had the opportunity to turn and run."
Goulet surprised the officers, shooting them on the doorstep of his home with a .45-caliber handgun.
The plainclothes detectives who were there to get Goulet's "side of the story" were not wearing body armor, Wowak said.
"Body armor wouldn't have helped the officers," he said, declining to elaborate where they were shot or how many times, out of respect for their families.
During Goulet's gunfire, one of the bullets struck a woman on nearby Stanford Avenue, grazing her in the leg.
Goulet stole the detectives guns and car keys and donned Baker's bulletproof vest found inside the car.
Minutes after the shooting, Goulet was dead after a shootout with authorities about a block away on Doyle Street. Wowak said they believe Goulet was trying to return to his home when a team of six officers encountered him on Doyle.
Using two guns, one of them Baker's, Goulet fired multiple times on the officers, hitting several vehicles including a Santa Cruz fire truck, but injuring no one. Four of the six officers returned fire, killing Goulet. Those officers, three from the Santa Cruz Police Department and one from the Santa Cruz County Sheriff's Office, are now on routine paid administrative leave.
He had his passport and a plane ticket to New Mexico departing this week in his pocket when he died, Wowak said.
Wowak said the detectives had "limited" information on Goulet's violent criminal history, which includes an arrest for an alleged rape in Hawaii and a gun conviction in Oregon.
"Sgt. Baker's done this thousands of times," Wowak said. "There was no information in their possession to our knowledge that could have prevented this."
Wowak said the officer's left behind no case notes and hadn't talked to supervisors about the case, leaving them with little information about the level of detail the officers had on Goulet's troubled past.
That's not unusual as there is no database that includes everyone's arrest records and case files from every city, county and state. That background would have come together as the case progressed.
Instead, detectives relied on their experience and training, Wowak said.
The new details come two days after the police officers' deaths, which are the first in Santa Cruz police history.
"It's rocked the community to its core," deputy April Skalland said this week.
Former Police Department spokesman Zach Friend, now a County Supervisor, thanked the community for its support and said the department remains in mourning.
"There's no playbook for this. We don't know what the next steps are."
Santa Cruz Mayor Hilary Bryant said the city will formulate a plan.
"We are going to have to move forward. That will happen in the next few weeks," she said.
Dozens of Santa Cruz residents have brought flowers, cards and notes at the Santa Cruz Police Department on Center Street since Tuesday.
Brian Sullivan, a 60-year-old from the Westside, lay flowers there Wednesday. He and his wife met Butler at a recent police community meeting. Sullivan said she was "just the kind of person we want representing this city."
Sullivan added that the recent rash of crime in Santa Cruz — including a murder outside a bar Feb. 9, a University of California, Santa Cruz, student shot at a bus stop and an armed robbery at a Mission Street grocery store — has many on edge.
"It's like the Super Bowl of crime in Santa Cruz," he said.
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