California Officer Killed While Investigating Burglary

Officer Kevin Tonn of the Galt (Calif.) Police Department was shot and killed by a man he was questioning about a nearby apartment burglary, reports CBS Sacramento . The incident took place around 11:30 Tuesday morning. After shooting at another officer, the subject shot and killed himself.

The man who shot Tonn is not the same person as the suspected burglar, who has been identified, according to a Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department spokesman. A neighbor being questioned appears to have pointed out the shooter to Tonn, incorrectly identifying him as the burglary suspect. The man was walking along some railroad tracks near the apartment building when the officer approached him. It is not known why he responded with gunfire.

Tonn, 31, was a K-9 handler who had served with the Galt Police Department for three-and-a-half years. His German Shepherd police dog, Yaro, was not injured in the incident. The officer had returned to his hometown in Northern California to join the department after serving in the Army as a military police officer and then working as a firefighter, paramedic, and fire inspector in New York state.

Tonn is the first officer in the history of the department to be killed in the line of duty. He leaves behind grieving parents, as well as a hard-hit agency and its community of around 25,000 people.