California Police Officer Fatally Shot in Ambush

DOWNEY, California -- A Downey police officer was found fatally shot while sitting inside his personal vehicle in the police station's parking lot, officials said early Thursday.

Two male suspects ran toward Officer Ricardo Galvez, who was not wearing his uniform, about 11:08 p.m. Wednesday as he was seated in the driver's seat of his vehicle at the Downey Police Department's west parking lot in the 10900 block of Brookshire Avenue, said homicide Lt. John Corina of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.

The men fired at Galvez, killing him, Corina said. After shooting at the officer, the two got into a vehicle and fled, he said.

A Downey officer driving in the area heard the shots and followed the suspects' vehicle into Montebello, Corina said, but they ran from the vehicle near Washington Boulevard and Carob Way.

A search for the men was underway Thursday morning, Corina said. Three people were detained, and authorities were searching for at least one more person, he said.

"It appears that this officer was targeted," Corina said. "It doesn't look like it was random."

Homicide detectives are reviewing surveillance video and are trying to determine what led to the shooting, he said. Galvez, a five-year Downey police veteran, was nearing the end of his shift at the time of the incident.

Investigators have executed a couple of warrants and plan to search homes and the pursuit route for the weapon, which they have not found, Corina said.

Detectives weren't aware of any threats made to the officer prior to the shooting, but Corina said investigators think the shooters knew the officer.

"It's pretty brazen," Corina said. "These people obviously, for whatever reason, were targeting this officer, or appears to be targeting this officer. In that they were that brazen, that they weren't afraid to attack him in the back of the police station, thinking they can get away with that."

Downey Police Chief Carl Charles said Galvez, 29, of Whittier, was known to the community as "Ricky." He described Galvez as a "tremendous young man who loved serving the residents of Downey."

"His smile was infectious, and his professionalism was always on display," the police chief said.

Galvez was a former Marine and was deployed twice during Operation Enduring Freedom, Charles said. The field patrol officer was not married and did not have children.

"Words cannot express the love and respect we have for Ricky," he said. "Our department is hurting."

The fatal shooting of police officers is relatively rare, particularly in the targeted way Downey officials say Galvez was killed.

The last time a Downey police officer was killed in the line of duty was nearly 35 years ago.

Officer Wayne Richard Presley, a nine-year police veteran, was struck and killed by a drunken driver on April 10, 1981. The 37-year-old officer and his partner had responded to the scene of a disabled truck and were getting back on their motorcycles when the speeding driver hit them.

Presley, a U.S. Navy veteran, was thrown into the truck and died. His partner hit the curb and suffered major injuries.

Galvez's shooting recalls the 2013 assault by former Los Angeles Police Department officer Christopher Dorner.

In his weeklong rampage across Southern California, Dorner killed two police officers and the daughter of an LAPD captain and her boyfriend.

In a manifesto written on his Facebook page, Dorner said that he was discriminated against because of his race and unfairly fired from the department, and that he sought retribution against those who wronged him.

The last LAPD officer to be fatally shot was Randal Simmons, who was killed during a SWAT raid in the San Fernando Valley in 2007.

According to the National Law Enforcement Officers' Fund, there have been 111 other police killings this year, compared with 101 in 2014.

Tribune News Service