The police department of Santa Cruz, California along with the entire population of the city was mourning the loss of two police officers. Two shootouts in the city left two of the city’s police officers dead along with the suspect. The chief of police in Santa Cruz said it was the darkest day in Santa Cruz police department history.
This tragedy is the most brutal one of a number of violent crimes to plague the city of 60,000 located on the coast about 70 miles south of San Francisco.
Kevin Vogel, the Police Chief said that Elizabeth Butler a detective with 10-years service to the police department and 28-year veteran Sgt. Loren Baker were shot and killed on Tuesday while following up on an investigation over a sexual assault.
Phil Wowak the Sheriff for Santa Cruz County told a local newspaper that Jeremy Goulet, the suspect, who was 35, was shot and killed in a barrage of gunfire only blocks from where he killed the officers.
A police spokesperson said that Butler left behind two sons and Baker was married with two daughters. Hilary Bryant the Mayor of Santa Cruz said the city was heartbroken over the loss of the two police officers who had been killed while protecting the rest of the people in the community.
The shooting follows turmoil that has gone on for several weeks, including a rape of a woman on the University of California Santa Cruz campus, a shooting on the campus, a home-invasion robbery, a grocery store robbery and a murder.
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