Two police offers are dead after two separate incidents on Florida and Alabama, both occurring just hours apart between Tuesday night and Wednesday morning.
In Alabama, police officer Nick O'Rear was shot and killed while assisting fellow officers on a vehicle pursuit on Interstate 65 South Tuesday night. The shooter fired the shots out of his own vehicle and into O’Rear’s, hitting the officer and causing him to crash his police cruiser. Fellow officers rushed him to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead Wednesday morning.
The 33-year-old officer leaves behind two children and a third on the way. Preston Johnson, 37, has been charged with capital murder in O’Rear’s death. Three others were arrested in connection with the incident.
Separately, in Marin County, Florida at around 10:15 a.m., Florida state trooper Joseph Bullock had pulled over to help a stranded motorist on Interstate 95 when the man inexplicably shot him dead. Another officer who was passing by the scene then fatally shot the shooter. Police haven’t determined the motive behind the seemingly random tragedy.
Bullock was 42 and had been with the department for almost 19 years after first serving in the Air Force.