PALM SPRINGS, Calif. _ Her neighbor from across the street screamed in desperation.
“I need help!” he called out. “My son is in the house, and he’s crazy. He has a gun. He’s ready to shoot all the police.”
Moments later, Frances Serrano, 65, heard a loud pop. And then another and another. Within seconds, it seemed, back-up police officers with rifles swarmed her street, where’d they would stay for hours searching for the man who had killed their colleagues.
Two Palm Springs police officers died, and another was injured after they had responded to a family disturbance call Saturday that set off hours of panic in the desert resort town. The shooting occurred shortly after noon, when officers rushed to the house near the Palm Springs Country Club after a woman reported a problem with her adult son.
“The officers were near the front door,” Police Chief Bryan Reyes told reporters, through tears, during an afternoon news conference. “They were responding to a simple family disturbance and (the gunman) elected to open fire on the guardians of this city.”
Reyes took a deep breath and gripped the lectern for support as he spoke of the two victims: Officers Jose “Gil” Vega, 63, and Lesley Zerebny, 27.
Vega, a 35-year veteran of the department who helped train new officers, was a father of eight who recently submitted his paperwork for retirement. He wasn’t scheduled to work Saturday, Reyes said, but took the shift as overtime, as he often did so others could get time off.
Zerebny, who helped catch a murder suspect during her first year of training, had just returned to work from maternity leave after giving birth four months ago to a daughter. Her husband, Reyes said, works for the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department, which took over the investigation.