SPRINGFIELD, Ohio January 2, 2011 (AP)
It began with a sheriff's deputy investigating a report of gunfire at a trailer park. By the time it was over, the deputy and the suspected shooter were dead, and a police officer was wounded in a gunbattle with the suspect.
"This is the worst day of my entire law enforcement career," said Clark County Sheriff Gene Kelly, who has been sheriff for 24 years.
Deputy Suzanne Hopper was shot Saturday as she tried to photograph a footprint in the Enon Beach mobile-home park in western Ohio, Kelly said. Hopper, who was married last year and had two children, didn't have the opportunity to return fire or take cover, he said.
Police officers were trying to talk to the shooting suspect when he fired on them from inside a trailer, and a German Township officer was wounded in an exchange of gunfire, Kelly said. There were "many, many, many" shots fired by the suspect and eight officers, he said.
The wounded officer, Jeremy Blum, was hospitalized in fair condition, a hospital supervisor said.
Authorities were still investigating and weren't ready to say whether police gunfire killed the suspect, whose identity wasn't released, Kelly said. It's possible the suspect, who had "a history" with the sheriff's office, killed himself, he said.
Enon Beach resident Angelina Inman said she looked out of her trailer at the park, which sits near a highway, to see the deputy lying on the ground. She watched as another officer tried to reach her body.
"He was itching to get her," Inman said. "He kept radioing in, can he please get her, and he was told no because it wasn't secure. You could see that male sheriff crying — he wanted to get her, he wanted to get her bad."
Sgt. Dustin White had accompanied Hopper to the |