Julio touched on this earlier today, but this week was a shooting gallery for law enforcement. Wednesday was a brutal day for the police department in Bristol, Connecticut, which lost two officers to an apparent ambush. A fake domestic violence call lured the two officers to their deaths. Domestic disputes are some of the most volatile calls for police, so the situation was probably already tense from the outset. The perpetrator, Nicholas Brutcher, opened fire on the officers but was later shot and killed. The city is the headquarters for the sports network ESPN, which offered condolences to the fallen officers, Sgt. Dustin Demonte and Officer Alex Hamzy. A third officer, Alec Iurato, was also severely wounded in the shooting, which required surgery (via NYT):
The call came in late on Wednesday night, the authorities said. The police were needed at a house in suburban Bristol, Conn., to investigate a possible domestic dispute.
When three Bristol police officers arrived, they were met by a man with a gun, the authorities said. Shots were fired, and Sgt. Dustin Demonte, 35, and Officer Alex Hamzy, 34, were killed in what officials are describing as an apparent ambush.
The suspected gunman, Nicholas Brutcher, 35, was also shot and killed at the scene, the Connecticut State Police said. Another police officer, Alec Iurato, 26, suffered a severe gunshot wound that required surgery, and the suspect’s brother, Nathan Brutcher, 32, was also wounded.
On Thursday, as flags across Connecticut were lowered to half-staff and members of the state’s law-enforcement agencies mourned their slain colleagues, the State Police were investigating what might have led Nicholas Brutcher to open fire on three officers of the law.
As if that wasn’t bad enough, five people were shot and killed in a mass shooting in Raleigh, North Carolina, one of the victims was an off-duty police officer (via The News and Observer):
Five people were shot and killed, including an off-duty police officer, near a northeastern Raleigh greenway Thursday, in an incident that rattled the city and drew national attention.
Two other people, including a Raleigh Police K-9 officer, were transported to a hospital. The officer had non-life threatening injuries and has been released from the hospital, Raleigh Police Lt. Jason Borneo said at a 10:45 p.m. press conference.
The other injured person remains in critical condition, Borneo said. Borneo confirmed that a male juvenile suspect is in custody as of approximately 9:37 p.m. Thursday.
As crime becomes more front-and-center in voters' minds, along with the Left’s nonsensical mantra to defund the police over pseudointellectual reasons grounded in race and slavery—this week’s string of shootings where police were targeted provides a nasty reminder of the dangers of the job. The most cooperative individuals with bright smiles could be the last thing you see as an officer. The rise in crime across Democrat-run cities has seen a call for more police. In Minneapolis, ground zero for the summer 2020 riots spurred by the officer-involved death of George Floyd, residents rejected initiatives to defund their police force. Being pro-crime is not popular, and we need to support policing to the hilt to get the number of robberies, homicides, and assaults under control.
