A man suspected in the shooting of two police officers died after he barricaded himself in a Fremont, California home early Thursday morning, police told BuzzFeed News. He refused to leave, even after police threw tear gas canisters into the house and it caught fire.
#FFD staged with 5 engines 1 truck and 2 Chiefs on the 100 block of Roberts. @kron4news @KTVU @CBSSF @FremontPatch
The incident began Wednesday at around 1:30 p.m. when the suspect was pulled over at a traffic stop.
The driver backed his car into a patrol car and there was an exchange of gunfire, injuring one officer, the Fremont police department wrote on Twitter.
Three people fled the car on foot, encountering police around 10 minutes later and again exchanging gunfire with them.
Another police officer was injured in the second shooting. Both officers were taken to the hospital and underwent surgery.
"We believe there was just one shooter, who possibly had two associates with him in the vehicle," Fremont Police Department spokesperson Geneva Bosques told BuzzFeed News.
One officer is in stable condition while the other is in critical condition. Both cops remain hospitalized.
Update: we have located a deceased body, believed to be the suspect, in the home on Roberts Ave.
Following a 10-hour-long manhunt for the suspect and a lockdown put on the Bay Area neighborhood, police tracked the suspect to a home in the "Five Corners" area of Irvington.
Oakland Police Swat team rolling in to take over in Fremont standoff. Suspect still inside home.
Around midnight officers and hostage negotiators began negotiations with the shooter as he was barricaded in the house.
The suspected shooter's family was reportedly brought into the negotiations, but he refused to emerge from the house, saying he was, "in it for the long haul."
Fremont police described the suspected shooter as a "Hispanic male adult, six feet, bald," with a San Francisco Giants t-shirt, gray shorts, and black shoes.
The residents of the home in which the suspect barricaded himself were all accounted for Wednesday night, Bosques said.
Alameda County sheriff's deputies fired tear gas canisters into the house around 2 a.m. in an effort to get him to emerge. The suspect held strong and the house eventually caught fire. Police say they believe the fire was caused by a canister's contact with heat.
Fire burns at Fremont home where police say officer-involved shooting suspect is barricaded. https://t.co/jUlLUK53An https://t.co/1WlqPMoh0u
The fire department evacuated neighboring houses and initially began efforts to put out the fire, but backed off and merely attempted to control it.
A SWAT team surrounded the house in order to catch the suspect should he choose to flee the flames.
Small explosions and loud cracks could be heard from inside the house, but the suspect did not emerge.
Just after 8 a.m. the suspect was found dead inside a closet in the burned house, police told local press.
"We do not know the cause of death but we have located the deceased male belueved to be the syspect in the home," Bosques told BuzzFeed News.
Bosques added that it was unclear whether the suspect died as a result of the fire, or from gunshot wounds obtained Wednesday night from his shootout with police.
coordinating an exterior fire attack now. This is a defensive fire. No firefighters going inside. @FremontPD
Firefighters are getting water on the fire now.