2 Officers Fatally Shot, 3^rd Wounded In Connecticut:cops Say…

Two police offi­cers answer­ing a domes­tic vio­lence call were killed and a third was wound­ed in a burst of gun­fire in Connecticut, author­i­ties said Thursday, dur­ing a week when at least 10 offi­cers have been shot around the country.

The sus­pect­ed shoot­er was also killed, and the shooter’s broth­er was wound­ed as bul­lets flew Wednesday night in Bristol, state police said. The wound­ed offi­cer was tak­en to a hos­pi­tal for surgery and expect­ed to recover.

Authorities said they were still work­ing to answer many ques­tions remained about the con­fronta­tion. No video of it has emerged publicly.

Witnesses said they heard three sets of gun­shots, about 30 in all.

“I heard a whole war going on behind me,” said Danny Rodriguez, who said he was out­side his home across the street when the gun­fire rang out. It was so intense that he could smell gun­pow­der in the air, he said.

“It was so loud and crazy,” said Rodriguez, who also recalled a woman scream­ing, “you … killed them!”

State Police Sgt. Christine Jeltema said offi­cers were respond­ing to a report of domes­tic vio­lence at about 10:30 p.m. when they encoun­tered some­one out­side the address in ques­tion and shots were fired.

Police haven’t yet said who opened fire, who fired the fatal shots, or how many guns were fired in all.

“We lost two excep­tion­al Bristol police offi­cers, and a third was seri­ous­ly injured as a result of sense­less vio­lence,” Bristol Police Chief Brian Gould said at a news conference.

Sgt. Dustin Demonte, 35, and Officer Alex Hamzy, 34, were killed, the chief said. Officer Alec Iurato, 26, was wounded.

Demonte, a 10-year vet­er­an offi­cer and co-recip­i­ent of his depart­men­t’s 2019 Officer of the Year award, was “very focused on his career and fur­ther­ing his career and edu­ca­tion,” the chief said. Demonte, who earned a bachelor’s degree in crim­i­nol­o­gy, worked as a school resource offi­cer. He and his wife were expect­ing their third child, Gould said.

Hamzy had got­ten many let­ters of com­men­da­tion dur­ing his eight years on his home­town police force, the chief said. Like Demonte, Hamzy was an advi­sor to a police cadet program.

“The out­pour­ing of love, sup­port and prayers from so many is deeply appre­ci­at­ed,” Hamzy’s fam­i­ly said in a statement.

Scores of offi­cers lined a street and fol­lowed a vehi­cle car­ry­ing Hamzy’s body from the shoot­ing scene late Thursday morn­ing. Demonte died at a hospital.

Iurato joined the Bristol depart­ment in 2018 and has a bachelor’s degree in gov­ern­ment, law and nation­al secu­ri­ty, the chief said.

“We need your thoughts. We need your prayers,” Gould told res­i­dents of the small city about 15 miles (24 kilo­me­ters) south­west of the state cap­i­tal of Hartford. Bristol is home to about 60,000 peo­ple and to the sports net­work ESPN, which is head­quar­tered about a half-mile (1 km) from the shoot­ing scene.

Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont ordered flags in the state to be low­ered to half-staff, call­ing the shoot­ing “a sense­less tragedy.”

It was the lat­est of sev­er­al shoot­ings of police offi­cers around the coun­try with­in two days.

On Tuesday night in Mississippi, Greenville Police Department Detective Myiesha Stewart was killed and sev­er­al oth­er peo­ple were injured by gun­fire as she and oth­er offi­cers respond­ed to a call, author­i­ties said.

Early Wednesday, three Philadelphia police offi­cers were shot and wound­ed at a homeand a sus­pect was killed when a SWAT team tried to arrest the man want­ed on a homi­cide charge, police said. And in Decatur, Illinois, two police offi­cers con­duct­ing a traf­fic stop were shot and wound­ed by a motorist who died after offi­cers returned fire, police said.

Late Wednesday, a sher­if­f’s deputy in cen­tral Florida was shot in the chest while inves­ti­gat­ing a report of a fam­i­ly dis­tur­bance at a home. Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said the deputy was “saved” by his bul­let­proof vest.

A Las Vegas police offi­cer was fatal­ly wound­ed ear­ly Thursday after he and a part­ner stopped a vehi­cle while answer­ing a domes­tic vio­lence call, the Clark County sher­iff said.

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This sto­ry has been updat­ed to cor­rect the spelling of the name of the wound­ed offi­cer. His name is Alec Iurato, not Alex Iarato.

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Contributing were Associated Press writ­ers Sue Haigh in Hartford, and Karen Matthews and Jennifer Peltz in New York City.