UPDATE: The shooting seems to have resulted from a domestic disturbance call. According to nbcnews.com,
“It was a simple family disturbance and he elected to open fire on a few of the guardians of this city,” an emotional Police Chief Bryan Reyes said.
The officers responded to a call from a woman who reported a disturbance involving her adult son at 12:18 p.m. (3:18 p.m. ET) and reports of gunfire came in about 10 minutes later, Reyes said.
The officers approached the front door and the suspect refused to open the door and threatened to shoot officers, Reyes said.
“The officers from what I understand were near the front door trying to negotiate with the suspect to just comply,” Reyes said. The officer who was wounded was alert and doing well, he said.
According to the LA Times, the suspect is believed to still be in the house.
————-
As desertsun.com reports,
Two police officers are dead and one is wounded after a shooting in Palm Springs on Saturday, according to a source familiar with the incident.
Dozens of law enforcement officers are involved in a search for the shooter or shooters in the area of Cypress and Del Lago roads in Palm Springs. Police are encouraging residents in the area to stay indoors while they conduct an investigation.
The report quotes someone who spoke to the father of the suspected shooter, who hasn’t yet been apprehended, as saying his son “has mental issues, had a gun and wanted to shoot cops.”
This post will be updated as information becomes available.
If the dad knew all that, why on earth didn’t he say anything?
We don’t know (yet) that he didn’t. If he kept his mouth shut, that was wrong – but I can understand the reluctance to report a mental health patient who is a potential threat to a law enforcement agency with a high proportion of members untrained in dealing with the mentally ill. It is not a good mix, and the father would immediately lose all semblance of control over the situation.
We have a family member who is mentally ill, bought a stolen handgun, threatened to kill himself and his parents with it (he is an adult) and got sent back home the same day he got arrested. Then again the next day after more threatening stuff. Trust me, when they ask why didn’t anyone say something, they almost always did. The police are not equipped to deal with it and the mental health system didn’t even know in this case what had happened because the police didn’t tell them or they didn’t read the report.
I work in mental health and it is virtually impossible for us to get a patient into the hospital when they need it. And we have contacts all through Southern California. Our country’s treatment of the mentally ill is reprehensible.
Far Northern California is in even worse shape. Shasta County has 20 critical beds –that are almost always full–and neither of the two major hospitals has a locked ward, much less any of the other facilities. Trinity, Tehama, Siskiyou, Modoc and Lassen County have no mental health facilities other than jail, and I think the same is true for Del Norte. Butte County has a critical care facility (5150 72 hour holds), but no long term care, as far as I know. I don’t know about Humboldt. When someone needs to be placed under lock and key, they are shipped to Davis. Governmor Reagan closed most of the state mental health facilities due to cost, and they have nver been re-opened. Those county facilities that remain are always operated on a shoestring.
Best wishes to the families of the fallen and hopes for a speedy recovery for the wounded.
Need more information.
“Mental issues” = Patriot?
You won’t go broke betting that….
Mental Issues = Came under the spell of the Death Cult Islam
So tell me again why can’t have reasonable laws again?
Laws that would have kept this maniac from possessing a gun.
And tell me again why Europe, Australia, Canada and Japan have it bad that they aren’t armed and not having “gun rights” groups going on rampages.
Who is going to protect us from you if you decided to snap?
It is your responsibility to protect yourself from those who would do you harm. Not the police, not your neighbor, and not anybody else. It is YOUR responsibility to protect yourself, and to protect those whom you love.
Can you provide a citation for any incident in which a “gun rights group [went] on a rampage”? I doubt it.
Japan is not comparable to the United States, because their culture is altogether different. They place a HUGE emphasis on family, honor, respect, and so forth. They don’t have many of the problems that the United States has tanks to the degradation of the nuclear family.
But they do have an obscene suicide rate compared to the US, so there’s that…
As to the UK and Australia, did you know that if you remove the crime rate of black people in the United States, our murder rate falls well below that of Australia and the UK? Or, you could just remove the crime rates of the big cities, like Chicago, Baltimore, Atlanta, DC, and NYC and get the same result.
Also, the UK has a tremendously high violent crime rate compared to the United States. I suppose as long as the criminal isn’t using a gun, the crime is OK with you?
Exactly!
And the alternative is a regulated police state.
“Who is going to protect us from you if you decided to snap?”
Put it to you this way:
It’s in your best interest to be polite to everyone, especially towards those you disagree with on political issues…
Lets ask the people at the Pulse Night Club if the government protected then when Marteen snapped, or the people at Columbine.
Lets ask the fine gang members of Chicago if laws keep them from having firearms, drugs, prostitutes or other things? The evil in the world don’t respect or even care about the boundaries of laws. The worse terrorist attack in this country was done with box cutters, the second was done with a Ryder truck and some fertilizer. Evil is creative.
You act like we don’t already have enough gun laws yet you don’t even know the details. Do you know if he stole the gun or bought a stolen gun off the street? If that’s the case, no law would have prevented this. Do you know if he bought the gun legally through a background check before he started having mental issues? No, because you don’t know shit.
You act like we don’t already have enough gun laws yet you don’t even know the details. Do you know if he stole the gun or bought a stolen gun off the street? If that’s the case, no law would have prevented this. Do you know if he bought the gun legally through a background check before he started having mental issues? No, because you don’t know shit.
Obvious troll is obvious.
We have crazies like you among us, that’s why.
who now doubt will not even blink at the law when they decide its time to deal with the “box of deplorable’s”….
Laws provide guidance in dealing with those who break the law, nothing in them about preventing the crime in the first place.
Laws do not stop maniacs from doing what ever they want to–also crime is very high in all the countries you name–maniacs use what ever is available
What laws are you proposing that would have saved these officers? Gun right groups going on rampages? Only groups I know currently rampaging are Black Lives Matter and Islam in America. We sure those groups aren’t responsibly for these murders too?
He’s already a mental defective. There’s already a law against him purchasing a gun. You think making it illegal-er is going to make a difference?
You people remind me of every pair of child siblings sharing a bedroom who shout “New rule!” after every disagreement, then promulgate the latest and greatest mandate to cure all of your problems. You put your endless, boundless faith in the next and perpetually promising one rule to rule them all.
That kind of thinking is cute and instructional as children, while reckless and reprehensible as adults. Grow up.
Well put!, [except I encourage you to open with the name to whom you’re replying (FascistsAgainstProGunFascism:), because they rarely seem to believe anyone could be disagreeing with them].
Better question is why you continue to push people against whom you have no defense. This leads to two possible answers.
1. You’re an idiot who keeps poking a sleeping bear with a sharp stick.
2. You know that gun owners won’t string you up for being a monumental pain in the ass.
“Laws that would have kept this maniac from possessing a gun.”
Kirk, you’re slipping in the logic department. What law would have prevented him from getting a gun? Do the laws against cocaine prevent people from getting nose candy for the weekend?
The gun is a side note. Someone with clear psychological problems expressing homicidal desires should be in treatment. “Universal background checks” doesn’t solve this. A person like this is too dangerous to be out of a controlled environment. If they cannot be rehabilitated or treated, then they need to live in a controlled facility.
That said, the threat needs to be very clear. We must err on the side of liberty, and pretty strongly so. Otherwise what amounts to involuntary non-criminal incarceration will be abused for political, interpersonal, and other reasons.
Quite the nutshell, Thanks.
Here you have a situation that is clearly about mental health and you blame the issue on the availability of fire arms. Why aren’t you railing about the country’s inability to deal with mental health issues?
The mentally ill and criminals have one thing in common; they don’t obey laws.
Why don’t you expend some of that righteous indignation on fixing the mental health system?
Hey, ConcernedAmerican.
The door is over there, don’t let it hit you in the ___ on your way out
of America.
Laws alone are incapable of keeping “this maniac from possessing a gun.” Furthermore, depriving him of firearms won’t keep him from substituting some other weapon. The only thing that will work is confining him to secure mental hospitals as long as he is dangerous. That would cost more than we are willing to spend. Maybe even more than we can afford to spend.
Where I live, a guy is on trial for four murders, two of them committed 8 years ago and the other two 2 years ago. His motive is supposed to be revenge against the people he holds responsible for ruining his professional career by firing him 15 years ago for bad behavior on the job. His first two victims were the son and housekeeper of one of his former supervisors. His other victims were another, elderly supervisor and his wife. All of the victims were stabbed repeatedly in the neck and head. One was also shot. The murdered wife also suffered defensive wounds which indicate that she tried to fight him off. He is a big guy, decades younger than she, and too strong for her to win such a fight. The only thing that would have saved any of them was a readily accessible firearm and the skill and willingness to use it effectively.
Not too long ago 15 people got stabbed to death at a hospital in Japan. How many people have been killed in France and Germany this year from Terrorism? Does it matter if it is a gun, knife or a bomb?
The US has a larger population then all three of those countries together. And California has some majorly strict gun laws. Way past common sense.
Almost 500,000 people die each year in the US from cigarette smoke including over 40,000 from second hand which could be considered murder. Focus on that if you care about human life so much. But my guess is you just care about control.
Aren’t you kind of jumping to conclusions before the facts are in? There are laws that keep people who have been adjudicated to be mentally ill as a result of an involuntary mental health detention(or other legal proceedings) from possessing guns . But as you know–or should know, since even Obama concedes the point–it isn’t that hard for a prohibited person to illegally acquire a firearm. Anyone convicted of domestic violence–even misdemeanor domestic violence such as a slight touching or a shove–is prohibited from possessing guns. And of course it is illegal to shoot other people, except in defense of self or others. What other laws do you propose that aren’t already on the books? Mental health exams for all? No psychiatrist can predict future conduct based on such an examination, except in extreme cases of people with significant violent histories., And if you get them for guns, do we get them before you can exercise your rights under the First or Fifth Amendments?
Murder is already illegal.
There, your reasonable law.
Perhaps your government should have kept the shooter in prison for more than two years for attempting to kill a rival gang member.
Hate to break it to you guys, but I doubt the troll stuck around to read any responses.
The only real value any Troll has is the opportunity for people to focus their attitude and responses to silly shit. Writing it out for others of like mind to consider and remark on is never a bad thing.
True, however I imagine a fair number of fence sitters see these well thought out responses one way or the other while they’re trying to figure out what the big deal is with gin culture. As long as we respond with facts and reason we’re doing ourselves a service with casual browsers.
That’s right what you said, but I don’t think trolls should be given that many responses, just enough to debunk their points. Willy_Lunchment or whatever he calling himself now either gets off on the negative attention, or gets paid by Michael Bloomberg for his “work” here by the number of responses.
One of the dead officers is a 35 year veteran, the other a rookie and young mother with a 4 month old baby at home.
No name or description of the shooter has been provided. Why?
You know why Ralph.
If there was a crazed murderer running around my city I would want to know who they are and what they looked like. Is some citizen going to be ambushed and murdered like those cops when they could be forewarned? Why sit on the identity of the suspect?
Why, you ask? Because the perp is a member of a Protected Class, and identifying that Class would give lie to the media Narrative.
Why was a woman with a 4 month old child not at home with the child? I worked 2 jobs so my wife could stay at home with the kids. My son is doing the same thing.
Ya’ know jwm I myself wonder why women are dealing with violent pschopaths. And getting hurt or killed in the process. Like the other chick cop brutally beaten in Chiraq…I guess I’m what used to known as a male chauvinist. And I am not in favor of women in combat. My sympathies to the families…
So this female officer is more dead than the male officer because she is female or something? Yeah, you sound like a chauvinist, glad I don’t know you personally.
@Cindy, FWW made a point when he spoke of deep felt sorrow for the mother torn from her young son. Shame on you for your ignorance and lack of empathy for just about everyone in this situation. Shame on you for putting down a man that wants to protect women from harm.
Hey Cindy louwho my beautiful wife could probably kick your butt wirh ease. As a cop. But I happen to believe women are to be cherished and protected. I’m happy I don’t know your goofy butt either…
Jwm: Maybe she was a single mother. Maybe the officer and the childs father had other than what some people consider traditional responsibility for child rearing. Maybe her leave for child birth, which is commonaly 12 weeks, was over and her child was home with a responsible adult. When our child was born we decided i would stay home and my wife, who had many years invested in a career and makes a boatload of money would work. Maybe you should find out about the officers circumstances before making unfounded and idiotic judgements.
Sorry it knotted your undies. But kids need a mother and a father. A mother needs to be home with her babies.
We’re seeing the results of “alternate” family’s and it ain’t pretty.
Good points….and i might add, maybe, she was a really good cop, who really liked her job, looked forward to decent pay and premium benefits and retirement package, so there is that.
Because the perp is transgendered, black, hispanic, and muslim? Or perhaps the spawn of a powerful politician?
Police arrested known gang member John Felix in the killing of two Palm Springs police officers Saturday afternoon.
Felix was previously sentenced to four years in prison for a 2009 attempted murder plot in which he confessed to assault with a firearm. He was also arrested in 2013 for fighting with police on the same doorstep where Saturday’s shooting occurred.
Tons of info. on the Officers , why no description of bad guy ? On foot ? in a car ?
We want the publics help ……….. but we won’t tell you what to look for ?
Interesting that only one of the officers in the photo has a long gun and it is only equipped with iron sights, and flip ups at that. If I were a cop in today’s world I wouldn’t be without a long gun available with some kind of optic mounted, even if the funds had to come out of my own pocket.
All the optics in the world won’t help if the cops can’t shoot. And most can’t.
A cop should be able to make consistent hits at 50 yards and more with iron sights. Easily.
Very true, but I still hold that if I was in a line of work where I was more likely than most to get into a gun fight I would want the best equipment that I could. Which is why I would rather use my personal AR than my issue M4 (even though I’m a complete POG and if I ever had to use it for real then something has gone horribly wrong).
Well, jwm, my wife and I are comfortably retired and our daughter owns 3 degrees in chemistry including a phd. Seems our “alternate ” parenting plan worked out just fine and we aren’t alone by a long mile. Condolences to the officers and their families.
As per fox news;
Officials identified John Felix as the man accused of gunning down officers Jose Gilbert Vega and Lesley Zerebny while they were trying to resolve a domestic dispute Saturday afternoon.
Condolences to the officers’ families and friends. Why were the officers standing in front of the door negotiating if the perp was threatening to shoot them? Maybe there was something not conveyed correctly in the reporting.
I live on the street where this happened. So so so Sad.