AUBURN, Mass. — A police officer in central Massachusetts was shot and killed early Sunday morning during a routine traffic stop. The suspect involved is the shooting is also dead.
Police said Officer Roland Tarantino, 42, was shot by the occupant of a vehicle he pulled over around 12:30 a.m. Sunday on Rochdale Street in Auburn, CBS Boston reports.
Officer Tarantino was taken to UMass Medical Center in Worcester and later died.
The suspect, Jorge Zambrano, 35, was killed after a standoff with police in an Oxford home. A trooper was shot but is expected to survive, CBS Boston reports.
Zambrano fled in a vehicle after the shooting, according to police.
Police say Zambrano barricaded himself in a home in Oxford. He burst out of a closet and opened fire on police and was killed.
According to police, Tarantino leaves behind a wife and three children. Auburn Police Chief Andrew Sluckis, Jr. said at a press conference Sunday that Tarantino had been with the department since he transferred there from the Leicester Police Department two years ago.
“The residents of Auburn have lost a brave and dedicated public servant,” Chief Sluckis said. “We will leave no stone unturned in our investigation to determine who was responsible for Officer Tarantino’s murder. Every investigative avenue is being pursued fully and completely.”
A neighbor told CBS Boston that he heard at least four gunshots outside his home early Sunday morning.
A motorcade took Officer Tarantino’s body to the office of the medical examiner in Boston Sunday morning.
Officers saluted as the fallen officer’s body was taken into the medical examiner’s office. Law enforcement officers from multiple departments were present along the route to pay their respects.
Auburn and Worcester Police, Mass. State Police, the FBI, and the Worcester County District Attorney’s office are investigating.
