Gunman Slain; Officer Suffers Critical Wounds

A Hayward police officer was in critical condition Thursday after a shootout that left a suspect dead and two other officers wounded.

Sgt. Kenneth Gross, 45, underwent two surgeries at Castro Valley’s Eden Hospital after the gun battle at 11:30 p.m. Wednesday. He was wearing a bulletproof vest and was shot in the chest and back, according to hospital spokeswoman Cassandra Phelps.

A 32-year-old officer shot in the left hip was in fair condition, Phelps said. A third was treated for a minor wound in his right leg and released from Oakland’s Highland Hospital.

Police said Gross had pulled over a speeding car and four minutes later radioed that he had been shot. Other officers confronted the gunman in an apartment where he fired several rounds at them from a shotgun and a semiautomatic pistol before he was fatally wounded, police said.

Police did not release two of the officers’ names because officials had not yet notified all family members. The man who was killed also was not identified.