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 Friday
morning, Police Director Toney Armstrong said. A suspect fired numerous
shots, striking officers Martoiya Lang and William Vrooman, he said.
Armstrong said officers returned fire, striking a suspect.
Lang, 32 and a mother of 4, died of her injuries,
Armstrong said. Vrooman, who was struck multiple times, was in stable
condition at the Regional Medical Center.
The nature of the officers' wounds was not
released. No further details of the shooting were released because of
the ongoing investigation.
The 21-year-old suspect also was hospitalized in
critical condition, police said. A 26-year-old man who was in the home
was in custody, but no charges were immediately filed.
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.
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.
Flags will be flown at half-staff in the city to honor Lang. She had been with the department since June 2003, Armstrong said.
"She was a friend, a family member," he 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.
Wharton said the shooting reflects a national problem, where too many criminals have too many guns.
"Nobody has a Second Amendment right to load up and kill a police officer," he said.
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