According to released video footage, Sacramento police officers were having a hard time setting up a perimeter around a crime scene during a recent standoff, while onlookers loitered in the area, shouting at them.
The police were mocked by the bystanders, called “cowards,” and told to take off their guns for a fair fight. Meanwhile, a young female officer, Tara O’Sullivan, 26, and other officers helped a woman gather belongings from a Sacramento home as part of a domestic violence call late Wednesday, June 19.
Police said a man with a rifle opened fire, and O’Sullivan was shot in the incident. However, other officers were unable to rescue their wounded colleague for 45 minutes, reported the Associated Press.
Digital editor of Comstock’s Magazine, Matthew Keys, shared the video on Twitter of police officers trying to clear the area, with local residents frustrating their efforts and insulting the officers.
In the video, a police officer can be seen moving a perimeter line and asking the onlookers to take a step back, while a female voice off camera can be heard, saying: “When this thing is reestablished we’ll move. We gonna watch, though.”
VIDEO: Sacramento Police (@SacPolice) taunted by gawkers near the scene of a shooting that injured one of their fellow officers on Wednesday pic.twitter.com/Ea4VERvdV6
— Matthew Keys (@MatthewKeysLive) June 20, 2019
“You all are looking for one person?” asks someone to the police.
“The only person we need to be safe from is you,” another woman off camera shouts.
“Hey, stray bullets catch people, ma’m,” the officer said, trying to warn the bystanders of the danger.
Another person off camera scolds the policeman for wearing a gun.
“Take that gun off. I’ll whoop your little butt,” the woman says. “All y’all cowards.”
“We know they are,” added the first woman. “Y’all cowards. We got guns too,” the other voice said.
Later in the video, shots can be heard in the background.
“We got one of you all!” yelled a bystander in response. “You gotta be quicker than that!” said another.
Rookie Officer Dies After Being Shot
O’Sullivan, the 26-year-old female police officer, was shot in the stand-off with police outside the home in Sacramento. Her fellow officers, pinned down by the gunman’s rifle fire, finally rescued her under the cover of an armored truck nearly an hour later, police told reporters.
The rookie police officer was pronounced dead at UC Davis Medical Center within hours, Deputy Police Chief Dave Peletta told reporters during a news conference.
UPDATE- On Thursday, June 20, 2019, at 5:55 a.m., the Sacramento Police Department booked 45-year-old Adel Sambrano Ramos on charges relating to the murder of Sacramento Police Officer Tara O’Sullivan.
Original Press Release: https://t.co/fMBuTo0TGM #sacpd pic.twitter.com/eG8ro1gFRP
— Sacramento Police (@SacPolice) June 20, 2019
The stand-off ended at 1:54 a.m. on June 20, according to the Sacramento Bee, citing police radio traffic, about one hour after officials had announced the death of the first Sacramento officer in 20 years.
Accompanied by a training officer, O’Sullivan was helping to pick up the woman’s belongings in her yard at around 6:10 p.m. when the gunman opened fire from the residence on the 200 block of Redwood Avenue in north Sacramento.
“Due to one of our officers being shot, our officers took safe positions, and at that time they believed the officer was shot with a rifle,” Sergeant Vance Chandler told reporters at another press conference. “The officer went down in the yard of a residence and, due to the suspect being armed with a rifle and actively shooting our officers, maintained cover in safe positions until we were able to get an armored vehicle in the area.”
That vehicle was able to rescue her at 6:54 p.m., Chandler said, and she was transported to a hospital at 6:59 p.m.
Epoch Times reporter Simon Veazey and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
