An armed man lying in wait on a dead-end street shot and wounded two Ohio police officers when they parked their patrol vehicles in an undeveloped industrial park to eat lunch Wednesday, and an officer driving into the scene in response to their call for help also was shot and seriously injured, officials said.
The shooter “was shot on scene and was pronounced deceased,” said Michael Failing, the acting police chief in Lorain, about 25 miles west of Cleveland. The man “had an arsenal of weapons with him,” said Failing, who did not share further details on that and noted that the available information about the shooting was preliminary.
James Welsh, the police chief in nearby Elyria whose department is investigating what happened, told reporters earlier that Lorain officers were ambushed by a man firing a high-powered rifle, and that police returned fire.
Welsh said it wasn’t immediately clear if the suspect, a 28-year-old Lorain man whom Welsh and Failing did not name, was killed by the officers or shot himself. Welsh said the man is believed to have acted alone.
Two of the officers suffered multiple gunshot wounds, Failing said. They were in critical condition after being flown to a trauma center, according to a statement issued by the Ohio Fraternal Order of Police hours after the shooting.
The other officer was shot in the hand and was treated at a local medical facility, Failing said.
He said the ambushed officers had just bought a pizza and parked side by side to eat in their vehicles. Responding officers loaded the wounded into patrol vehicles and rushed them to get medical care, he said.
Authorities shared no details Wednesday about what might have motivated the shooting.
“It’s a tragic day in the city of Lorain, but we’re a strong city, and we’re going to move forward,” Mayor Jack Bradley said.
He said officers will be offered counseling to help process what happened.
Bradley also said he’d spoken with Gov. Mike DeWine, who offered support. In a separate statement, the governor said the shooting “reminds us that those who work in law enforcement risk their lives every day for the safety of their communities.”
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