Rookie Sacramento police officer killed, stand-off ensues

[June 20, 2019]    (Reuters) - A rookie police officer in Sacramento, California, died after she was shot while answering a domestic disturbance call late on Wednesday, spurring an eight-hour standoff with the suspect, who fired his rifle "off and on" for hours, police said.

Officer Tara O'Sullivan, 26, a 2018 graduate of the Sacramento police academy, was with her training officer when they responded to the domestic disturbance call around 6 p.m., Deputy Chief Dave Peletta said at a news conference early on Thursday.

O'Sullivan and a fellow officer were helping a woman take her belongings out of a house in the Noralto neighborhood in the north part of the city when O'Sullivan was shot by a man inside the house, police said. She fell on the lawn outside the house and other officers took cover, police said.

Her fellow officers could not get to her right away because of the gunman, Peletta said. After about 45 minutes, police used an armored vehicle to reach O'Sullivan and took her to a hospital, where she died, Peletta said early Thursday.

"We are devastated," he said. "She gave her young life while protecting our community."

Police evacuated the neighborhood and the shooter held off police for about eight hours until a police negotiator convinced him to surrender about 2 a.m. Pacific time, the Sacramento Bee reported. The man was not immediately identified.

No other officers were reported injured.

(The story fixes typo in the first paragraph)

(Reporting by Rich McKay in Atlanta; editing by Larry King)

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