By Rich Pedroncelli and Stephania Dazio | Associated Press
ROSEVILLE — A man has been arrested after shooting and killing one person and wounding two others, including a highway patrol officer, in a Northern California park on Thursday.
Multiple police stations began to descend on Roseville, a city northeast of Sacramento, in the early afternoon.
California Highway Patrol officers were serving a warrant to the suspect when he began shooting at them, Roseville Police Chief Kelby Newton said. A CHP officer was hit by gunfire, he said.
When police arrived, officers confronted the suspect, who was still carrying a gun and was seen running away from officers in a city park, Newton said. The suspect took two hostages and then surrendered to officers on the scene.
Both hostages were shot and one of them died, officials said. The condition of the surviving hostage was not immediately known.
The injured officer was taken to hospital in stable condition.
The names of the victims were not disclosed. The violence occurred near baseball fields, resulting in the park being closed off. Students attending camps were taken to a nearby school to be reunited with their families.
Two local hospitals said a total of three people were being treated for unspecified injuries. Two were at Sutter Roseville Medical Center with unknown injuries, according to spokesman Gary Zavoral, while a third was at Dignity Health Mercy San Juan Medical Center.
Roseville is a city of about 150,000 people located about 20 miles northeast of Sacramento.
A large police presence had previously descended on a Roseville park for an “active law enforcement situation,” the Roseville Police Department said on Twitter at around 1:50 p.m.
“The scene is safe at this point,” police said about 30 minutes later. People were urged to avoid the area.
Earlier, a police coordinator said the department was responding to a shooter, but no other details were available.
The lockdown was lifted on a local fitness center and library, Roseville police said.
All children attending camps were safe, the city’s Parks, Recreation and Events Department had said in a Facebook post.
“Please avoid the area and do not attempt to collect your children from camp until the situation is resolved and we provide further guidance,” the department wrote.
The fitness center is a vast sports complex on the edge of a large park with a gym, basketball court and playground.
Dazio reported from Los Angeles. Associated Press writers Adam Beam in Sacramento, California, and Christopher Weber in Los Angeles contributed.
