The story below illustrates why policing can be a very dangerous occupation. It has often been said that policing is 95 percent utter boredom and five percent sheer terror. The Oakland tragedy was one of those moments of sheer terror.
I wonder what, if any, degree of parole field supervision (as opposed to office visits) this cold blooded killer received? This awful event did end on a high note with SWAT killing that worthless piece of shit. Now at least we won't have to listen to defense attorneys spouting off about his abused childhood.
A fourth Oakland officer, the one wounded during the initial traffic stop, was declared brain-dead shortly after this story was published. He remains on life-support pending the harvesting of his organs for transplantation.
GUNMAN KILLS 3 OFFICERS, WOUNDS 4TH IN OAKLAND
by Terry Collins and Lisa Leff
OAKLAND, Calif. – A police officer was battling for his life and three more were dead after a parolee with an "extensive criminal history" opened fire at a routine traffic stop and hours later gunned down members of a SWAT team searching for him.
The gunman was also killed Saturday, capping a day of violence that the Oakland Police Department said was the worst in its history. Never before had three police officers died in the line of duty on the same day.
"It's in these moments that words are extraordinarily inadequate," said Mayor Ron Dellums at a somber news conference Saturday night.
The mayhem began that afternoon, when two motorcycle patrol officers stopped a 1995 Buick sedan in east Oakland, Oakland police spokesman Jeff Thomason said. The driver opened fire, killing Sgt. Mark Dunakin, 40, and gravely wounding Officer John Hege, 41.
The gunman then fled on foot, police said, leading to an intense manhunt by dozens of Oakland police, California Highway Patrol officers and Alameda County sheriff deputies. Streets were roped off and an entire area of east Oakland closed to traffic.
About two hours later, officers got an anonymous tip that the gunman was inside a nearby apartment building.
A SWAT team had entered an apartment to clear and search it when the gunman shot them with an assault rifle, police said.
Sgt. Ervin Romans, 43, and Sgt. Daniel Sakai, 35, were killed and a third officer was grazed by a bullet, police said.
SWAT team members returned fire, killing 26-year-old Lovelle Mixon of Oakland, Acting Oakland police Chief Howard Jordan said.
Officer Hege suffered brain damage and may not survive, his father, Dr. John S. Hege, said late Saturday.
"It is a stunning thing to face," he said.
Grieving officers at the police station hugged and consoled each other. People left four bouquets of white roses under a granite memorial wall inside the building lobby that lists 47 officers killed in the line of duty. The wall shows the last officer killed in Oakland was in January of 1999.
Police said Mixon wielded two different weapons. One gun was used at the first scene and an assault rifle was used at the apartment building where he was hiding.
Jordan said Mixon had an "extensive criminal history" and was wanted on a no-bail warrant.
"(Mixon) was on parole and he had a warrant out for his arrest for violating that parole. And he was on parole for assault with a deadly weapon," said Oakland police Deputy Chief Jeffery Israel.
Police said they did not know exactly why the officers initially stopped the suspect, but said it apparently was a routine traffic stop.
People lingered at the scene of the first shooting. About 20 bystanders taunted police.
Tension between police and the community has risen steadily since the fatal shooting of unarmed 22-year-old Oscar Grant by a transit police officer at an Oakland train station on Jan. 1.
That former Bay Area Rapid Transit officer, Johannes Mehserle, has pleaded not guilty to a murder charge. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for Monday. Violent protests erupted on the streets of Oakland in the weeks after Grant's death, further inflaming tensions.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger planned to fly to Oakland on Sunday from Washington, D.C., to meet with police and Mayor Dellums, the govenor's office said.
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Associated Press writer Tim Reiterman contributed to this report.
1 comment:
Any word on if any flash bangs were used or gas grenades before they attempted a dynamic entry? Friend is on our local Sheriff department tactical team and they generally do one or both of the above before going into such a spot.
Concern for the neighbors/apartment building owner regarding collateral damage/injury perhaps caused the commanding officer to go in without and got two SWAT officers killed?
Be a shame if that's what happened and it was preventable.
At least they killed the bastard but I'd like to see the after action on this as to how the entry team got hit that hard when they knew he was in there.
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