Suspect in Massachusetts officer’s slaying dies in shootout

The suspect in the fatal shooting of a Massachusetts police officer died after an exchange of gunfire Sunday as authorities closed in on him at a small town residence, police said.

The man, identified as 35-year-old Jorge Zambrano, burst out of a closet and opened fire on the officers as they approached him inside a duplex apartment in Oxford, Worcester County District Attorney Joseph Early Jr. said at a news conference.

“The suspect appeared from inside a closet and fired on the troopers, striking one of them,” State Police Col. Richard McKeon said. “The STOP [State Police Special Tactical Operations] team returned fire and struck the suspect.”

Zambrano, who authorities said had a criminal history, was taken to a hospital, where he died.

A Massachusetts State trooper, also wounded, was scheduled to undergo surgery late Sunday night. He suffered a gunshot wound to his left shoulder during the shootout, authorities said. The name of the 18-year veteran and former U.S. Navy Seal wasn’t released.

The manhunt for Zambrano began after Auburn Police Officer Ronald Tarentino was shot and killed during a traffic stop about 12:30 a.m. Sunday. Tarentino stopped a vehicle on a residential road, and the vehicle’s occupant shot the 42-year-old officer before fleeing the scene, Auburn Police Chief Andrew Sluckis said earlier Sunday. Auburn is about 45 miles southwest of Boston.

Tarentino was taken to UMass Medical Center in Worcester, where he was pronounced dead. He had been with the Auburn police force for two years and before that worked with the Leicester Police Department in his hometown. Sluckis called him a “dedicated and brave public servant.”

State and local police officers lined up outside the hospital as a police vehicle, escorted by a procession, took Tarentino’s body to the state medical examiner’s office in Boston, where the vehicle was met by another large contingent of officers.

Tarentino was the second police officer to die in the line of duty in Massachusetts this year. State police Trooper Thomas Clardy was killed March 16 when his cruiser was struck by another vehicle.

Outside the Auburn police station, the American flag was lowered to half-staff. The town’s residents left bouquets of flowers and miniature American flags piled at the bottom of a stone monument dedicated to law enforcement officers who have been killed in the line of duty.

Residents of Tarentino’s Leicester neighborhood remembered him Sunday as a pleasant family man. Tarentino is survived by a wife and three children.

Phillip Stanikmas told the Worcester Telegram & Gazette that Tarentino kept an eye out for his 91-year-old mother when she was home alone. Stanikmas said he was “distraught” when Tarentino left the Leicester Police Department because he was a “great guy.”

“I wanted him to stay in Leicester,” Stanikmas said.

UPDATES:

8 p.m.: This article was updated with information about an exchange of gunfire that left shooting suspect Jorge Zambrano dead and a Massachusetts state trooper wounded.

This article was originally posted at 9:58 a.m.