{"id":14240,"date":"2014-06-10T00:27:08","date_gmt":"2014-06-09T16:27:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=14240"},"modified":"2014-06-12T12:51:05","modified_gmt":"2014-06-12T04:51:05","slug":"2-officers-bystander-killed-in-las-vegas-ambush","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2014\/06\/10\/2-officers-bystander-killed-in-las-vegas-ambush\/","title":{"rendered":"2 officers, bystander killed in Las Vegas ambush"},"content":{"rendered":"
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LAS VEGAS \u2014 Two police officers were having lunch at a strip mall pizza buffet when a man and a woman fatally shot them in a point-blank ambush, then fled to a nearby Wal-Mart where they killed a third person and then themselves in an apparent suicide pact, authorities said.<\/p>\n

The attack at a CiCi’s Pizza restaurant on Sunday killed Officers Alyn Beck, 41, and Igor Soldo, 31, who are both husbands and fathers. One of the shooters yelled, “This is a revolution!” but a motive remains under investigation, Las Vegas police spokesman Larry Hadfield told The Associated Press.<\/p>\n

“It’s a tragic day,” Sheriff Doug Gillespie said at a news conference Sunday afternoon. “But we still have a community to police, and we still have a community to protect. We will be out there doing it with our heads held high, but with an emptiness in our hearts.”<\/p>\n

For added safety, officers who normally work alone will be paired up with another officer for a time, Gillespie said.<\/p>\n

The deadly rampage in the aging shopping center about 5 miles northeast of the Las Vegas Strip took place in a matter of minutes. Police were called at 11:22 a.m. to the pizzeria, where one of the officers was able to fire back at his assailants. It’s unclear whether he hit them, Gillespie said.<\/p>\n

Shots were reported five minutes later at a nearby Wal-Mart, where the shooters gunned down a person just inside the front door and exchanged gunfire with police before killing themselves, police said.<\/p>\n

The female suspect shot the male suspect before killing herself, Gillespie said. The Wal-Mart victim’s identity hasn’t been confirmed, and the suspects’ names haven’t been released.<\/p>\n

Both officers were pronounced dead at University Medical Center. Beck had been with the department since 2001 and leaves behind a wife and three children. Soldo had been with the force since 2006 and is survived by a wife and baby, police said.<\/p>\n

He was described as a good father and a “great guy” by his sister-in-law, Colleen Soldo of Beatrice, Nebraska. She said he attended high school in Lincoln, Nebraska, and previously worked as a corrections officer.<\/p>\n

Sheree Burns, 48, told the Las Vegas Sun she was eating at the restaurant, seated just behind the two officers when a man came up to one of the officers and shot him in the head.<\/p>\n

She said she ducked under her table but peeked up and saw the other officer being shot.<\/p>\n

She said the man took an officer’s handgun and the two attackers fled.<\/p>\n

Pauline Pacheco was shopping at Wal-Mart when she saw the armed man and grabbed her father to escape, KLAS-TV reported.<\/p>\n

“We saw when the man was walking, he was shouting, yelling bad words, and suddenly he had a gun,” she told the station. “It was terrible, it was terrible. That man was crazy.”<\/p>\n

Assistant Sheriff Kevin McMahill said the male suspect yelled “everyone get out” before shooting at Wal-Mart. The suspects then walked to the back of the store.<\/p>\n

Gov. Brian Sandoval said in a statement he was devastated by the killings of the two officers and an innocent bystander in an “act of senseless violence.”<\/p>\n

In a statement, Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman called the killings a “cruel act” and praised the officers for dedicating “their lives to protecting all of us in our community.”<\/p>\n

Wal-Mart employees and shoppers were taken to a nearby women’s clothing store to be interviewed by police. The restaurant and Wal-Mart remained closed as detectives processed evidence. McMahill said the investigation is “very complex” because it involves more than 1,000 witnesses.<\/p>\n

Wal-Mart expressed its condolences in a statement and said the company was working with police on the investigation. CiCi’s Pizza said in a statement the company was deeply saddened by the shooting and would keep the location closed until further notice.<\/p>\n

Sunday’s killings come less than a year after the Las Vegas police department’s most recent on-duty death. Officer David VanBuskirk died while rescuing a stranded hiker by helicopter on July 22, 2013.<\/p>\n

The department has lost officers over the past decade in vehicle accidents and in an off-duty shooting, but the most recent on-duty shooting death happened Feb. 1, 2006, when Sgt. Henry Prendes was ambushed during a domestic violence call.<\/p>\n

Griffith reported from Reno.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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