Inglewood police officers take up positions outside a residence where a police officer was shot and another injured during a confrontation with a gunman Wednesday.
Two police officers were wounded in the US state of California during a gunfire exchange between a gunman and the police, with the gunman holding two people hostage in a home.
The incident took place on Wednesday in the city of Inglewood where officers were sent to a home following a report of a family disturbance.
One officer was shot in the chest and injured but his bulletproof vest saved his life. A second officer was slightly wounded in a fall during the confrontation.
The 45-year-old gunman who held his girlfriend and daughter hostage for several hours has now been taken into custody and his hostages have been released.
Law enforcement negotiators persuaded the man to come out of the house at about 9 p.m. local time after the tense standoff.
Video from the scene showed an officer carrying a child and escorting others away from the neighborhood, which was locked down during the standoff. Several homes were evacuated.
Since the deadly shooting at an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut, on December 14 which left 20 first-grade school children and six staff members dead, nearly 31,000 people have been killed in gun violence across the US, according to slate.com.
A scientific study published by the American Journal of Medicine in September found that the rate of gun violence is positively correlated with gun ownership rates, supporting arguments put forth by many critics who blame the notoriously liberal gun control laws in the US for the high rate of gun violence in the country.
AHT/ARA
Source: Press TV