By Tanner Stening
masslive.com
BRAINTREE, Mass. — Authorities say a suspect involved in the shooting of two Braintree police officers Friday afternoon has died.
Sources told MassLive earlier in the day that one officer was shot in the chest and the other was shot in the arm. The Norfolk District Attorney’s office confirmed that the suspect was dead on scene slightly before 4 p.m.
A police K-9, named Kit, also died as a result of the shooting, according to WCVB. Officials said the suspect had two weapons on him, according to Norfolk District Attorney Michael Morrissey.
Morrissey said the suspect, who was in his 30s, was well-known to police and that there were warrants out for his arrest.
“Preliminary information is that two police officers were wounded by a suspect in the area of McCusker Drive,” David Traub, a spokesperson for the Norfolk District Attorney’s office, wrote in a statement. “The officers are receiving treatment at two different area hospitals.”
Morrissey said that Braintree police received a 9-11 call at roughly 12:45 p.m. reporting an ongoing domestic incident in an apartment complex. Officers responded and spoke to a victim who told them that the suspect had fled out of the building into a wooded area.
Police were notified and set up a perimeter. Three police officers, including the K-9, then searched for the suspect in the wooded area.
“As the three officers and the dog got into the wooded area ... they came under fire from an individual in a defensive position, some would say lying in wait in an ambush for the officers to come into the wooded area,” Morrissey said.
Morrissey said the suspect and the officers then exchanged fire. During that exchange, the police dog was fatally injured.
“The officers were also struck as they returned fire,” Morrissey said.
WCVB reports that one of the officers was taken to Boston Medical Center, and the other to South Shore Hospital. Both officers sustained multiple gunshot wounds, and the third was not injured, authorities said.
In response to the shooting, Braintree police requested detectives from the Norfolk District Attorney’s office and personnel from the Massachusetts State Police Crime Scene Services and Ballistics Unit.
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