Two detectives, suspect dead in Calif. shootings
Police secure scene in Santa Cruz, Calif. where two Santa Cruz Police detectives were shot and killed Feb. 26, 2013. The officers were investigating a sexual assault, and a suspect was later fatally shot, authorities said. / AP
Updated 3:06 p.m. EST
SANTA CRUZ, Calif. Two police detectives were fatally shot when they tried to question a man over a report of a sexual assault, and the man later died after a brief chase, authorities said.
Sgt. Loren Butch Baker and Detective Elizabeth Butler were shot and killed Tuesday during an altercation at the home of the man, according to police and the Santa Cruz County Sheriff's office.
They were shot while following up on allegations that 35-year-old barista Jeremy Goulet made inappropriate sexual advances on a co-worker at her home, authorities said. Goulet was arrested Friday, and The Santa Cruz Sentinel reported that he was fired the next day.
The Sheriff's office revealed Wednesday afternoon that Goulet had body armor and three guns.
Baker, a 28-year veteran of the force, and Butler, a 10-year veteran, had gone to the house where Goulet was living to follow up on the case, authorities said. They were subsequently fired upon and called for backup, and responding officers found Goulet, who died in the gunfire that followed, the sheriff's office said.
"There aren't words to describe this horrific tragedy," said Police Chief Kevin Vogel. "This is the darkest day in the history of the Santa Cruz police department."
The shootings prompted the lockdown of two schools and an automatic police call to nearby residents, warning them to stay locked inside.
The ordinarily quiet residential neighborhood echoed with a brief barrage of gunfire that killed the suspect about a half hour after the officers were shot.
Witnesses described hearing a "multitude of gunfire" - with 20 or more shots fired during that gun battle between the suspect and law enforcement, reports CBS San Francisco station station KPIX-TV.
A store clerk a few buildings from the shooting said the barrage of gunfire was "terrifying."
"We ducked. We have big desks so under the desks we went," said the clerk, who spoke on condition of anonymity and asked that her store not be identified because she feared for her safety.
After the shootings, police went door-to-door in the neighborhood, searching homes, garages, even closets, to determine whether there might be additional suspects. Law enforcement officers filled intersections, and helicopters and light aircraft patrolled the neighborhood about a mile from downtown Santa Cruz and the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk.
The city's mayor, Hilary Bryant, said in a statement that the community about 60 miles south of San Francisco was "heartbroken at the loss of two of our finest police officers who were killed in the line of duty, protecting the community we love."
"This is an exceptionally shocking and sad day for Santa Cruz and our police department," Bryant said.
Goulet, a barista at a coffee shop in the Santa Cruz harbor, was previously convicted in Portland, Ore., in May 2008 of peeping on a 22-year-old woman who was showering in her condominium and of carrying concealed weapon, according to a Portland newspaper, The Oregonian. He was on probation but was sentenced to two years in jail after a dispute with his probation officer.
The shootings came amid a recent spike in assaults, which community leaders had planned to address in a downtown rally scheduled for Tuesday. That, along with a city council meeting, was canceled after teary-eyed city leaders learned of the deaths.
The recent violence included the killing of a 32-year-old martial arts instructor who was shot outside a popular downtown bar and restaurant; the robbery of a student at the University of California, Santa Cruz, who was shot in the head; a 21-year-old woman who was raped and beaten on the UC campus; and a couple who fought off two men during a home invasion.
Popular on CBSNews.com
- Tsarnaev friend implicates dead brother, self in murders 151 Comments
- Victims of deadly Oklahoma tornado 6 Photos
- Up-close video of Moore, Okla., tornado Play Video
- Oklahoma tornado as seen by storm chasers Play Video
- Tornado's destructive path 17 Photos
- AG Holder: Drones killed 4 Americans since 2009
- Tornado victims start picking up the pieces
- Deadliest U.S. tornadoes 10 Photos
We had two armed and trained officers of the law gunned down while doing their jobs. They both carried. They both knew how to use their firearms better than the average gun owner. They both knew that they could get into a situation that was life-threatening. And they both died.
Carrying a gun won't keep you safe. Statistically speaking, keeping a gun in the house is about 500 times more likely to kill you, a loved one, a neighbor or a co-worker than it will ever be used to defend your home. For every person killed in defense of home, 1000 other Americans die from firearms every year. Most of them are suicides. The rest are crimes, accidents and misadventures. And the number of people who owned their gun legally before using it in a crime is more than half of the deaths in the U.S. In other words, we could cut firearms-related criminal deaths in half if we eliminated the RIGHT to keep and bear arms and regulated it like any sane nation would do when it has lost more than twice the number of its citizens to that "right" over the years than it's lost in all the wars it's ever fought.
If there was a country in the world that killed 30,000 Americans every year, we'd be invading it and taking away THEIR guns before the first hundred people hit the ground. But that country is already "invaded", and here we are watching the slaughter among us without a care in the world, insisting that we have to have guns to be "safe".
Sadly, the conservative mind is too focused on fear to realize the irrational nature of the arguments supporting private gun ownership.
Or, is it just the gun laws that need to have a 100% guarantee that criminals will abide by them?
Which is it? All laws or just the gun laws?
The conservative brain bases their decisions on fear - a fight or flight mindset. This comes from over-exposure to fear-based propaganda: Fear of the criminal, fear of the terrorist, fear of gayness, fear of God, fear of being wrong. They are constantly afraid of everything. It isn't a genetic defect. It's merely indoctrination like a religion. But it's a simplistic thought process and explains why they (as Obama so famously said) "cling to their guns and bibles". They are afraid of everything.
The liberal mindset is more about self and social consciousness - how their actions impact others. It, too, is an indoctrinated mindset that isn't inherently genetic, brought about by environment. However, it's somewhat more complex way of thinking since it appeals to a higher method of thinking than the reptilian fear response.
This is why conservatives cling to their guns and why liberals tend to want to take them away or control them. The obvious hyperbole in Sham's statement indicates a mindset that is based on fear and only indoctrination into a different mindset through his environment will change that. And given that his environment will not likely change, he will never achieve the ability to base any decision on anything other than fear.
Guns make them feel better about the world, but it's a completely delusional feeling. After all, they will say in one breath that guns don't kill people, but guns protect people. When you are dealing with a mind that is that irrational, as I said, they are incapable of understanding your point.
Join over 1 million legal American citizens against these law breaking Illegals at NUMBERSUSA.
google it, and register. Take Action.
get a clue
put employers in jail for hard time
easy, efficient and low cost
jobs dry up illegals go home on their own
worried about drugs
quit buying and taking them
attack a problem directly not from an oblique angle
The 2nd amendment didn't help the two policemen, it killed them.
Thanks again NRA.
Condolences