A man wanted for violating his parole killed three police officers and gravely wounded another in two shootings on Saturday, the first after a routine traffic stop and the second after a massive manhunt ended in gunfire, authorities said.
The gunman was also killed.
The violence began on Saturday afternoon when two officers stopped a Buick sedan in Oakland, California, police spokesman Jeff Thomason said. The driver opened fire, killing one officer and seriously wounding the second.
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-and-a-half hours later, officers, acting on an anonymous tip, found the suspect barricaded inside an apartment building, police said.
Police said the gunman fired an assault rifle at officers who came into the building to arrest him. Two members of the SWAT team were killed and a third was grazed by a bullet, police said.
Acting Oakland police chief Howard Jordan said police returned fire, killing a man they identified as 26-year-old Lovelle Mixon of Oakland.
The slain officers were identified as Sergeant Mark Dunakin, 40, who was killed at the first shooting, and sergeants Ervin Romans, 43, and Daniel Sakai, 35, who were killed at the second location.
Officer John Hege, 41, was in serious condition.
Somber officers at the police station consoled each other.
“This is probably one of the worst incidents that has ever taken place in this history of the Oakland police department,” Thomason said.
“[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,” Oakland police Deputy Chief Jeffery Israel said.
People lingered at the scene of the first shooting. About 20 bystanders taunted police.
Tension between police and the community has risen since the fatal shooting of unarmed 22-year-old Oscar Grant by a transit police officer at an Oakland train station on Jan. 1.
A humanoid robot that won a half-marathon race for robots in Beijing on Sunday ran faster than the human world record in a show of China’s technological leaps. The winner from Honor, a Chinese smartphone maker, completed the 21km race in 50 minutes and 26 seconds, said a WeChat post by the Beijing Economic-Technological Development Area, also known as Beijing E-Town, where the race began. That was faster than the human world record holder, Ugandan Jacob Kiplimo, who finished the same distance in about 57 minutes in March at the Lisbon road race. The performance by the robot marked a significant step forward
Four contenders are squaring up to succeed Antonio Guterres as secretary-general of the UN, which faces unprecedented global instability, wars and its own crushing budget crisis. Chile’s Michelle Bachelet, Argentina’s Rafael Grossi, Costa Rica’s Rebeca Grynspan and Senegal’s Macky Sall are each to face grillings by 193 member states and non-governmental organizations for three hours today and tomorrow. It is only the second time the UN has held a public question-and-answer, a format created in 2016 to boost transparency. Ultimately the five permanent members of the UN’s top body, the Security Council, hold the power, wielding vetoes over who leads the
An earthquake registering a preliminary magnitude of 7.7 off northern Japan on Monday prompted a short-lived tsunami alert and the advisory of a higher risk of a possible mega-quake for coastal areas there. The Cabinet Office and the Japan Meteorological Agency said there was a 1% chance for a mega-quake, compared to a 0.1% chance during normal times, in the next week or so following the powerful quake near the Chishima and Japan trenches. Officials said the advisory was not a quake prediction but urged residents in 182 towns along the northeastern coasts to raise their preparedness while continuing their daily lives. Prime
South Korea’s air force yesterday apologized for a 2021 midair collision involving two fighter jets, a day after auditors said the pilots were taking selfies and filming during the flight and held them responsible for the accident. “We sincerely apologize to the public for the concern caused by the accident that occurred in 2021,” an air force spokesman told a news conference, adding that one of the pilots involved had been suspended from flying duties, received severe disciplinary action and has since left the military. The apology followed a report released on Wednesday by the South Korean Board of Audit and Inspection,