Officer Killed Only On Duty For 1 Month

An El Paso police officer was shot and killed early saturday morning while responding to a family fight, police spokesman Javier Sambrano confirmed. The shooting happened just before 1 a.m. along the 600 block of Bristol in West El Paso .

The officer whom police identified as Angel Barcena — had been on the force one month. “As the unit arrived, the subject turned his attention on the officers, and started to shoot at them, wounding one of them.?� Sambrano said. ??The officer was transported to william beaumont army medical center , where he died a short time after arrival.”

Theodore Michael Berry, the 43-year-old suspected shooter, is under arrest and will be charged with murder, Sambrano said. “This is a very tragic incident, I am very saddened and the entire department is saddened by the loss of fellow officer,?� said Chief of Police Richard Wiles. ??This is the worst thing that could happen to a police department is to have a police officer killed in the line of duty like this.”

“My oldest son — he heard one of the first shots and came running to my room,?� said Rebecca De La Cruz, a neighbor. ??My son woke me up, said someone was shooting a gun outside so I got up, started looking out the window and that’s when we saw all these officers telling a gentlemen with his hand raised to keep his hands up in the air, just to keep his hands up in the air.”

Barcena had just graduated from the local police academy ?? he became a full-fledged officer on Aug. 26. Domestic violence calls are considered the most dangerous of all situations for police, Sambrano said. ??More officers have been injured responding to calls of this type than any other across the nation,?� he said.