Rialto PD (California) Swat Officer Killed

**PapaBear** · 10-18-07, 05:15 PM

RIALTO, Oct. 18, 2007 (KABC-TV) - A SWAT officer was shot and killed while serving a search warrant in Rialto.

Investigators are trying to sort out exactly what happened.

The officers had just entered the residence when shots were fired.

Over the years, I can't tell you how many times we've accompanied local police agencies in the serving of search warrants in the early morning hours. The way that each agency proceeded with such care and caution, led by SWAT team members, you knew it was dangerous work. On Thursday morning an officer was killed while serving a warrant.

At 7 a.m. Thursday morning, officers with the Rialto and Colton Police Departments were serving a search warrant at a residence near Cascade and Riverside Drive.

A neighbor described what he heard and saw.

"I heard a loud boom this morning, I opened up my door and there was about three or four loud explosions and cops were all over the block, SWAT teams, DEA, ATF, sheriffs and all the sudden a police helicopter lands in the middle of the street ... one of the police officers got shot and they airlifted him out," Joseph Pruitt, a neighbor, said.

"During the course of the service of the search warrant in one of the apartments, a couple of members of the police department became involved in a struggle with a person that we have detained ... during the course of the struggle one of our officers sustained a gunshot wound. The officer was airlifted to a local hospital ... he did not survive his wound," Capt. Raul Martinez, of the Rialto Police Department, said.

Capt. Martinez could not release the name of the officer but did say he was a four year veteran.

"We've suffered a great loss, not only the city of Rialto and the police department but the community," Capt. Martinez said.

Capt. Martinez said the shooting occurred inside the residence. The officers were fighting with the suspect, who has been detained. Authorities are investigating just how this shooting occurred.

Copyright © 2007 KABC-TV.

http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/story?se...cal&id=5714096

**Hannibal** · 10-18-07, 05:16 PM

R.I.P.

**Jenna** · 10-18-07, 05:28 PM

Rest in peace.

**Illiy** · 10-18-07, 05:29 PM

Prayers...

This one is very close to home...

**Buttercup** · 10-18-07, 06:07 PM

RIP

**Just KC** · 10-18-07, 06:39 PM

RIP

This is one of our allied agencies.....so very sad.

**armsmaster270** · 10-18-07, 07:01 PM

RIP, condolences to the family, and burn the asshole.

**Doc_Holliday** · 10-18-07, 07:15 PM

prayers enroute to the whole department...I was a police explorer for the Rialto PD when I was 15 years old...this is very very close to home.

**PapaBear** · 10-18-07, 08:15 PM

1:04 p.m.: Rialto SWAT officer killed in line of duty
By Stacia Glenn

RIALTO - A Rialto SWAT member was fatally shot in the head this morning while serving a narcotics search warrant at an apartment.

Photo Gallery: Rialto Officer Killed - http://sbsun.mycapture.com/mycapture...p?event=355571

Video: Rialto Officer shot to death - http://medianewsgroup.a.mms.mavenapp...6-12ff165a0fb2

Police Capt. Raul Martinez declined to comment on the events leading up to the shooting and would not rule out the possibility of friendly fire.

Several sources with varied law enforcement agencies have confirmed it was a SWAT member and not the man inside the apartment who pulled the trigger.

Both Rialto and Colton SWAT teams, accompanied by a Drug Enforcement Administration agent, set out to serve multiple felony narcotics warrants in the neighborhood around 6:30 a.m.

Neighbors said they heard percussion grenades going off on the patio in front of 113 Cascade Drive, presumably to subdue the resident's two pit bulls. Inside, a struggle ensued and Officer Sergio Carerra, a four-year veteran and father of two, was shot.

Officials said they will not confirm his identity until a 3 p.m. briefing, but several law enforcement sources have identified Carerra.

"We've suffered a great loss today, not only the city of Rialto and the police department, but

A four-year veteran Rialto Police Officer was shot and killed this morning while serving a felony narcotics search warrant, he and other members of the SWAT team were serving felony narcotics search warrants in the 100 block of Cascade Drive in Rialto, Thursday, Oct. 18, 2007. the community," said Capt. Raul Martinez, pausing periodically to control his emotions. "I can't put it into words. It's tragic."

A helicopter landed on Cascade Drive and transported Carerra to Arrowhead Regional Medical Center in Colton, where he was rushed into surgery. He died moments later.

The man who struggled with police was detained but not arrested. Neighbors said he lives there with a girlfriend and three kids. Though neighbors said they were surprised that police would knock on his door, some said the man's apartment was shot up early Sunday morning.

Rialto police declined to confirm or deny that the man's apartment was shot at earlier this week.

"We heard a lot of explosions and then the police swarmed," said Josophe Pruett, 46, who lives next door to where this morning's shooting occurred. "This really surprised us."

Pruett, a security guard at a nearby movie theater, said crime has recently run rampant in the neighborhood. Just days ago, a man pointed a gun at Pruett and his daughter, he said.

Calls for service in the area have increased significantly, Martinez said.

All city flags were lowered to half mast in honor of the slain officer.

Two teams of San Bernardino County sheriff's deputies are investigating the shooting, which is routine for officer-involved shootings. Spokesman Cindy Beavers said the report will be finished within six months.

Carerra is the second officer to be killed in the line of duty in Rialto. In 1986, Sgt. Gary Wolfley was shot in the parking lot of a now-demolished Shell station just down the street on East Foothill Boulevard after a suspect waited for him in back and stole his gun.