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Still no reports of injured or killed. Maybe no news is good news?
Moments later, officers arrived to find one colleague fatally shot and the other critically wounded. A trail of blood led police to a suspect who had been shot in the chest. Officers detained another man Friday during a search for a second possible suspect. In San Diego, it was the third fatal shooting of a police officer since 2010, but the first during the 28-month tenure of police Chief Shelley Zimmerman. “Tragically, one of our officers was murdered last night,” Zimmerman told reporters late Friday morning.
The chief said she personally visited the wife of slain officer Jonathan DeGuzman, 43, a 16-year veteran and father of two, to inform her of the tragic encounter. She had also gone to the hospital to check on Officer Wade Irwin, 32, who was expected to survive. “It is extremely difficult but something you have to do,” Zimmerman said. “There’s nothing that prepares you to do that.” DeGuzman was the 10th police officer to be fatally shot in the line of duty in the U.S. this month, causing Zimmerman to lament the increase in violence against law enforcement. “That’s just a tragic statistic of police officers that go out every single day that wear a badge with pride that we all took an oath to protect and serve all of our communities,” she said. “And to have this happen to our police officers — we have seen this happen way too many times just in these last few weeks across our great country. It is tragic for everyone.”
Police officers gather at the emergency entrance to UCSD Medical Center Hillcrest on July 29 after two San Diego police officers were shot, one fatally, in the Southcrest neighborhood of San Diego late Thursday night.
It was unclear Friday exactly what prompted the shooting. Police said the incident, at least in part, had been captured on one officer’s body camera. They did not disclose what was recorded. DeGuzman and Irwin were patrolling in uniform and in a marked car as part of the city’s 10-team Street Gang Unit. According to the department’s website, the teams work seven days a week citywide patrolling areas where gang crime is prevalent. They focus on felony gang crimes. Police arrested Jesse Michael Gomez, 52, shortly after the incident about 11:30 p.m. Thursday in the Chollas Creek ravine just south of the site of the shooting, Zimmerman said. Gomez had been critically injured by a gunshot wound to his upper chest, and officers followed a trail of blood to him. Police, including officers from many other agencies, swarmed the area searching for another man with the aid of police dogs, helicopters and heavily armed SWAT team members. They focused for hours on the ravine just south of Acacia Grove Way.
Shortly before sunrise Friday, no other suspect had been found. Many officers from the other police agencies were released from their posts by 4 a.m., and some streets reopened after that. Later that morning, officers surrounded a house on Epsilon Street near 41st Street in Shelltown, about a half-mile from the initial shooting at Acacia Grove Way near 37th Street. They remained there for hours, trying to persuade a man who they believed to be inside to surrender. Other family members were reported to have gotten out of the residence before the standoff. Police did not release the man’s name, but a negotiator using a bullhorn repeatedly appealed to “Marcus” to come out. Officers fired gas bombs into the home, which had an armored SWAT vehicle in the driveway.
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