Police: Officer fatally shot in suburban Detroit

[September 10, 2012]  WEST BLOOMFIELD TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) -- Authorities say a 12-year veteran police officer was fatally shot in suburban Detroit while rushing to the aid of a man officers thought needed medical attention.

Police have surrounded a home in West Bloomfield Township Monday morning and believe the suspected gunman has barricaded himself inside.

Police Lt. Timothy Diamond says the officer was shot about 10 p.m. Sunday inside the home in the Oakland County community. He says a team of four or five officers responded after getting a 911 call that the man fired a gun inside the house.

Diamond says the suspected gunman was involved in a "divorce situation" and two other people escaped from the home before the 911 call.

Names weren't immediately released. Diamond says the officer was a married father of four.

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THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE.
AP's earlier story is below.

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A man suspected in the fatal shooting of a 12-year veteran police officer barricaded himself inside a suburban Detroit home Monday morning as police surrounded the area, authorities said.

The officer, a married father of four, was shot and killed about 10 p.m. Sunday as he entered a home in the Oakland County community of West Bloomfield Township, police Lt. Timothy Diamond told the Detroit Free Press. Police closed roads in the area and nearby homes were evacuated Monday morning as officers surrounded the property.

"It's a terrible day," Diamond said.

The shooting happened as officers responded to a report of shots being fired inside the home, the newspaper reported.

"Initially there were other family members there, but they had left before officers arrived," Diamond said. "Officers went into the house and were met with gunfire."

The Oakland County sheriff's department said Monday morning that its SWAT team was on the scene.

Diamond did not immediately respond to an Associated Press reporter's calls for comment Monday morning.

[Associated Press; By COREY WILLIAMS]

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