Three police officers killed, two seriously injured in Pennsylvania shooting

North Codurus: Three police officers were fatally shot and two wounded on Wednesday (US time) in southern Pennsylvania, and the shooter was killed by police, authorities said.

“We grieve for the loss of life of three precious souls who served this county, served this commonwealth, served this country,” Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro said.

“This kind of violence is not OK, we need to do better as a society,” he continued.

First responders work at the scene of the shooting in North Codurus.Credit: AP

The shooting erupted in the area of North Codorus Township, about 185 kilometres west of Philadelphia, not far from the Maryland border, authorities said.

“The grief will be unbearable, but we will bear it,” Pennsylvania State Police Commissioner Christopher Paris said at a news conference.

“We will not rest until we conduct a full, fair and competent investigation into this matter.”

York Hospital said it was treating two people in serious condition and had enhanced security protocols in place.

Paris would not say which police department the officers belonged to, but they were at the scene to follow up on a domestic-related investigation that began the prior day.

Authorities did not identify the shooter or the officers or describe the circumstances of how they were shot. Police could not share many of the details because the investigation is ongoing, Paris said.

Attorney General Pamela Bondi called the violence against police “a scourge on our society”. She said federal agents were on the scene to support local officers.

“Please send prayers to the officers and those involved in the shooting in York County,” Pennsylvania Lieutenant Governor Austin Davis said in a social media post.

A local school district issued a shelter-in-place order, though it said schools and students were not involved in the shooting. The order was lifted later in the afternoon. The district said in a statement that authorities “advised us to hold students and staff in our buildings as a precaution while several area roads are closed”.

The medical response unfolded on a rural road in south-central Pennsylvania that winds through an agricultural area with a barn and farm fields.

Officers were keeping people well back from the scene in the area’s rolling farmland, with some 30 police vehicles blocking off roads bordered by a barn, a goat farm and soybean and corn fields.

“Pennsylvania State Police, Northern Regional Police and numerous emergency responders are at the scene. The York County Commissioners are monitoring the situation closely and praying for all those involved,” the county said in a statement.

An officer in the area was killed in February when a man armed with a pistol and zip ties entered a hospital’s intensive care unit and took staff members hostage before a shootout that left both the suspect and an officer dead.

AP

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