3 Police Officers Killed, 2 Seriously Injured in Gun Attack in Pennsylvania

Three police officers have been killed and two critically injured in a Pennsylvania shooting that also led to the death of the gunman.

The slain and injured officers were reportedly following up on a domestic-related investigation that began the previous day.

Speaking at a local hospital where the two officers were in critical but stable condition on Wednesday, Pennsylvania State Police Commissioner Christopher Paris confirmed that “the shooter is dead”, but provided scant details as to the deadly events that unfolded in the rural York County shooting.

“I can assure you that all the resources of the Pennsylvania State Police are being brought to bear,” Paris said, adding the site of the shooting was still “very much an active scene”.

Paris said Pennsylvania State Police would convene a “major case team” in partnership with the York County District Attorney’s Office and that he had been in touch with the FBI.

The commissioner was joined by Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, who had rushed to the scene in North Codorus Township, about 185 kilometres (115 miles) west of Philadelphia, to meet with families of the slain and injured police officers.

“This is an absolutely tragic and devastating day for York County and the entire commonwealth of Pennsylvania,” Shapiro said.

The shooting of the five officers comes on the heels of another high-profile police officer death that has rocked the county of less than 500,000 people.

On February 22, an officer was killed by police gunfire during a shootout with a man who was holding staff members at a local hospital hostage. The attacker was also killed.

Pennsylvania Attorney General Dave Sunday, who worked as a prosecutor in York County for years and also headed to the scene Wednesday, deemed the shooting “unfathomable” on social media.

A local school district issued a shelter-in-place order as reports of the shooting emerged. 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”.

US Attorney General Pamela Bondi called the violence against police “a scourge on our society”.

Governor Shapiro said Bondi had reached out to him directly to express the support of the federal government.