SALON

Friday, Dec 14, 2012 11:00 PM UTC

Police say 1 officer fatally shot, 1 hurt in Tenn.

By

Topics: From the Wires,

Police say 1 officer fatally shot, 1 hurt in Tenn.Memphis Police Department officers gather outside the Regional Medical Center after two of their fellow officers were involved in a shooting on Friday, Dec. 14, 2012 in Memphis, Tenn. One officer was killed and another officer was wounded. The wounded officer was being treated at the medical center. (AP Photo/Adrian Sainz)(Credit: AP)

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — A Memphis police officer was fatally shot and another wounded during a shootout at a home Friday, authorities said.

Officers with the organized crime unit entered a home in east Memphis to serve a drug-related search warrant at 8 a.m. Friday, Police Director Toney Armstrong said.

A suspect with a 9 mm pistol and a high-capacity magazine exited a bedroom and fired numerous shots, striking officers Martoiya Lang and William Vrooman, he said.

Officers returned fire, striking the suspect in the abdomen.

Lang, 32 and a mother of four girls, was shot in her upper torso, Armstrong said. She died of her injuries at the Regional Medical Center.

Vrooman, who was shot in the leg, was treated and released from the same hospital.

The 21-year-old suspect was hospitalized in stable condition, police said. He has no criminal record. Police did not release his name, citing the ongoing investigation.

A 26-year-old man who also was in the home was in custody, but no charges had been filed as of Friday afternoon.

Lang and Vrooman, 32, were the 10th and 11th police officers to be shot while on duty since Armstrong took over the department in April 2011. Lang was the second officer to die.

“This is something that has torn this department apart,” Armstrong said.

The shooting was a reminder that police officers put their lives in danger every day they are on duty, Memphis Mayor A C Wharton said.

“Through it all, we appreciate deeply, beyond measure — words can’t express the sacrifice they make for our city,” Wharton told reporters outside the hospital.

Lang had been with the department since June 2003, Armstrong said. A fund to benefit her daughters was established at SunTrust Bank in Memphis. Lang’s daughters are ages 2, 12, 13 and 14.

“She was a friend, a family member,” Armstrong said.

More than a dozen officers gathered outside the hospital. One woman was seen crying loudly and being led into the hospital. Armstrong was visibly shaken as he and Wharton spoke with reporters.

Armstrong would not say how many rounds the high-capacity magazine held or how many shots were fired. He said it was common to see shooting suspects use a 9 mm.

“More often than not, it seems to be the gun of choice,” he said.

Wharton said the shooting reflects a national problem — too many criminals have too many guns.

“Nobody has a Second Amendment right to load up and kill a police officer,” he said.

More By Adrian Sainz.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
    Credit: AP/LM Otero

  • Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center in Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
    Credit: AP/Matt Rourke

  • A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
    Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher

  • Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
    Credit: AP/Molly Riley

  • Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
    Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

  • Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
    Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid

  • Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
    Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield

  • When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
    Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin

  • A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
    Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments

 0 Comments

Comment Preview

Your name will appear as username

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href=""> <b> <em> <strong> <i> <blockquote>

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: So long, Sookie Stackhouse

Recommendations