Authorities say a Missouri police officer who was still in training after graduating from the police academy in July died after being killed by a wanted man who opened fire on officers and also died.
INDEPENDENCE, Mo. – A Missouri police officer who was still in training after graduating from the police academy in July died after being shot by a wanted man who opened fire on officers and was also killed, according to van inform the authorities.
Pro-independence officer Blaize Madrid-Evans, 22, was hospitalized with serious injuries after Wednesday morning’s shooting and later died, the Independence Police Department reported Wednesday afternoon.
The Missouri State Highway Patrol said two officers went to a residence in Independence around 11:30 a.m. in response to a call to the shipment and were greeted by a man who fired a gun. against agents.
Madrid-Evans was shot and the other officer fired again, police said. The man who shot at officers, later identified by the road patrol as Cody L. Harrison, 33, of Gladstone, was pronounced dead at the scene.
The road patrol was investigating. Patrol Sergeant. Andrew Bell said Wednesday that officers had received advice that someone wanted when they responded.
Missouri Department of Corrections records listed Harrison as wanted and “out of custody,” but did not specify why he was wanted. Judicial records show he was sentenced to 15 years in prison after pleading guilty in 2011 to a charge of unloading or shooting. a firearm to or from a motor vehicle to a person or to a motor vehicle or to an inhabited structure. No other details about the shooting were obtained immediately.
A spokeswoman for the corrections did not immediately return any phone messages early Thursday. And the patrol sergeant. Bill Lowe said early Thursday that the investigation was ongoing and he had no other information to disclose.
Madrid-Evans began his professional career in the department of the Kansas City Regional Police Academy in January and graduated in July. He had entered the department’s field training officer program, the department said.
Officer Jack Taylor, a police spokesman, said Madrid-Evans was engaged.
“Right now it’s pretty sad, it’s really a state of shock,” Taylor said Thursday. “Just try to process what happened yesterday and find out what the next steps are.”
He said the last time the department lost an officer in the service was in 2001, when Terry Foster was murdered at the scene of a domestic disturbance. Foster, who was just weeks away from retiring, was shot four times by a man police believe is dead in a subsequent fire he started.
In a statement, the mayor of Independence, Eileen Weir, thanked the officers and the other lifeguards for their service.
“We always hope that their daily interactions with the public will be peaceful so that they can return home safely to their families at the end of their turn. Today has not been like that,” the statement said.