An Oregon police officer was shot and injured while responding to a call about a burning house on Sunday.
The officer, whose identity has not been released, responded to the scene of a house fire on Sunday at about 1 p.m. local time. According to the New York Daily News, there had been reports of a man on the scene carrying a handgun, which forced firefighters to wait before they could work on dousing the fire.
The responding officers confronted the man, whose identity has also been withheld, and things went south.
"We saw a house on fire. I pulled over as a concerned citizen to check out what was going on. Right as we pulled up, police officers pulled up, fire department showed up," witness Johnathan Priest told local station KATU.
"The police officer lowered his guard for a second (and) right as he did, guy behind the fence shot him in the face and the officer fell to the ground”.
The suspect then fled to a nearby house for cover.
The officer who was shot was reportedly taken by a LifeFlight Helicopter to Legacy Emmanuel Medical Center in Portland for treatment. His condition is currently unknown.
A SWAT team soon arrived on scene after the officer was shot. People in the area were evacuated for their own safety.
"When there's a code 0, every officer in the vicinity comes running," said West Linn Sgt. Neil Hennelly.
The SWAT team found the suspect and shots were fired. The man was then found dead, though there is currently an investigation underway as to just how he died.
Authorities are also investigating the cause of the house fire, which they believe could have been started by the suspect. Firefighters were still working on the fire well into Sunday evening when it eventually burned to the ground.
There has been a critical error on your website.<\/p>
Learn more about debugging in WordPress.<\/a><\/p>","data":{"status":500},"additional_errors":[]}