06-05-2012, 10:14 AM
RIP Officer Kevin Ambrose
![[Image: bc7246_ltpkevina20120605.jpg]](http://multimedia.heraldinteractive.com/images/20120605/bc7246_ltpkevina20120605.jpg)
bostonherald
A veteran Springfield police officer brutally gunned down yesterday in the line of duty by an enraged Rikers Island prison guard during a domestic violence call loved his job so much he put off retirement.
Officer Kevin Ambrose “paid the ultimate sacrifice,” Springfield Mayor Domenic Sarno said yesterday just hours after the triple-shooting in the city.
Police say Ambrose, a married father of two, was shot and killed by Shawn Bryan, 35, of Hempstead, N.Y.
Bryan came to Springfield to see his 1-year-old daughter, who lives with her mother, Charlene Mitchell, 29, in the Lawton Arms apartment complex in Springfield’s 16 Acres, city police Commissioner William Fitchet said.
Early yesterday Mitchell received a restraining order against Bryan, Fitchet said.
The six-page stay-away order stipulated that Bryan could remove his personal belongings from Mitchell’s home, but he had to surrender his firearm.
Mitchell asked police to accompany her while Bryan collected his belongings.
Ambrose arrived at the complex at 1 p.m. in a one-man patrol car, Fitchet said, and escorted the couple to Mitchell’s third-floor apartment.
Once there, Bryan shoved Mitchell inside, slipped in behind her and shut the door on Ambrose, police said. Bryan then shot at Ambrose through the door, then opened the door and shot Ambrose two more times, leaving the proud new grandfather mortally wounded.
“It was one (shot) after another, bam, bam, bam,” said neighbor Desiree Romero, who lives below Mitchell, and was home listening to music when the shots rang out.
“I opened my doors and there was a lady crying, telling me to call the police,” she said. It was Mitchell’s aunt, who told Romero she had been in the hallway with Ambrose when he was shot.
Meanwhile, police said, Bryan went back into the apartment and shot Mitchell, then fled to his car and shot himself in the chest.
Bryan was dead when officers found him. Ambrose was pronounced dead at Bay State Medical Center, and Mitchell was fighting for her life last night.
The gruesome triple shooting has devastated the city, where the friendly Ambrose, 55, spent more than three decades as a public servant.
Ambrose came on the force as a police cadet in the mid-1970s, and his brother, Martin Ambrose, is a sergeant in the narcotics division.
“He was an officer that everyone loved and looked up to,” Springfield police Sgt. John Delaney said. “A few weeks ago, he told me he opted not to retire, because he loved his job.”
bostonherald
A veteran Springfield police officer brutally gunned down yesterday in the line of duty by an enraged Rikers Island prison guard during a domestic violence call loved his job so much he put off retirement.
Officer Kevin Ambrose “paid the ultimate sacrifice,” Springfield Mayor Domenic Sarno said yesterday just hours after the triple-shooting in the city.
Police say Ambrose, a married father of two, was shot and killed by Shawn Bryan, 35, of Hempstead, N.Y.
Bryan came to Springfield to see his 1-year-old daughter, who lives with her mother, Charlene Mitchell, 29, in the Lawton Arms apartment complex in Springfield’s 16 Acres, city police Commissioner William Fitchet said.
Early yesterday Mitchell received a restraining order against Bryan, Fitchet said.
The six-page stay-away order stipulated that Bryan could remove his personal belongings from Mitchell’s home, but he had to surrender his firearm.
Mitchell asked police to accompany her while Bryan collected his belongings.
Ambrose arrived at the complex at 1 p.m. in a one-man patrol car, Fitchet said, and escorted the couple to Mitchell’s third-floor apartment.
Once there, Bryan shoved Mitchell inside, slipped in behind her and shut the door on Ambrose, police said. Bryan then shot at Ambrose through the door, then opened the door and shot Ambrose two more times, leaving the proud new grandfather mortally wounded.
“It was one (shot) after another, bam, bam, bam,” said neighbor Desiree Romero, who lives below Mitchell, and was home listening to music when the shots rang out.
“I opened my doors and there was a lady crying, telling me to call the police,” she said. It was Mitchell’s aunt, who told Romero she had been in the hallway with Ambrose when he was shot.
Meanwhile, police said, Bryan went back into the apartment and shot Mitchell, then fled to his car and shot himself in the chest.
Bryan was dead when officers found him. Ambrose was pronounced dead at Bay State Medical Center, and Mitchell was fighting for her life last night.
The gruesome triple shooting has devastated the city, where the friendly Ambrose, 55, spent more than three decades as a public servant.
Ambrose came on the force as a police cadet in the mid-1970s, and his brother, Martin Ambrose, is a sergeant in the narcotics division.
“He was an officer that everyone loved and looked up to,” Springfield police Sgt. John Delaney said. “A few weeks ago, he told me he opted not to retire, because he loved his job.”