The deputy was shot by police as many as 10 times after he ignored commands from the officers to drop his firearm, according to police and the mayor.
Officer Francisco Villicana was cleaning his personal gun Friday around 5:45 p.m. in Salinas when he mistakenly fired the single round that killed Luis Alfredo Ferro-Sanchez, police said.
One of the suspects pulled a gun and demanded the victims’ property, officers said. The Wallkill officer lost his wallet and shield in the stick-up.
One of the carjackers jumped out and pointed a gun at her. But he did not realize that he was attempting to rob an off-duty police officer who was armed.
“Very thankful our officer was not injured, he could have obviously been seriously injured or killed, so just extremely thankful for him and his family,” said Sean Pritchard, president of the San Jose Police Officers Association.
“Officer Brennan immediately sprang into action putting on gloves and instructed the mother-to-be to push,” police say.
According to Tish Clark, a spokesperson for the DeSoto County Sheriff's Department, the officer was hit in the shoulder and is expected to recover. She described the shooting as an "ambush" and said it occurred around 6 a.m. Monday morning as the lieutenant was heading to work.
Two suspects, one 19 and the other 18, were free on bail in other felony cases prior to the shooting.
Officials said the off-duty Milwaukee Police Department detective intervened, announced that he was an officer and attempted to detain the suspect.
“We observed Officer (Shane) Bartek utilized training that he received in our police academy to try to disarm the suspect,” Interim Chief Wayne Drummond said. “Our conclusion in the review was that it was a line of duty death.”
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