3 officers and a man were wounded and a suspect is killed in Omaha shootings

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Three Omaha police offers were wounded and a suspect in an earlier shooting was killed Wednesday in an exchange of gunfire at a gas station.

The suspect, a man in his 20s, had earlier shot a 61-year-old man several times in the chest about noon at a grocery store, Police Chief Todd Schmaderer said. Officers obtained a license plate number from the scene and followed the suspect’s car to the gas station, he said.

The officers watched the suspect get out and enter a restroom. After additional officers arrived, they ordered the man out of the restroom and he came out firing, police said in a news release. One officer was struck before the suspect retreated back into the restroom.

A bystander who was in the restroom when the shooting began managed to come out safely before officers again ordered the suspect out and a second shootout occurred. That time a second officer was shot and a third was hit by shrapnel. The officers returned fire, and the suspect was killed.

“This is a very dangerous day involving this suspect in the city of Omaha,” Schmaderer said.

The officers suffered non-life-threatening but serious injuries and were taken to a local hospital, Omaha police said. The officer hit by shrapnel was later released.

The man who was shot at the grocery store was in critical condition.