I heard it on the radio in the car, so I came home and looked at the Chronicle article. It's really sad. I would have put the odds fairly high that it was an illegal. That or a La. evacuee.
I finally saw the perp on the news tonight, from his court appearance. The dreads that another reporter said he saw weren't dreads, just long greasy hair that was swinging when he shook his head "no" each time.
Oh, yeah, a real winner. It was his wife's 9mm pistol and he had it in his waistband, under 2-3 layers of shirts. The other cops think he might have been able to bring his handcuffed hands down behind his back and around his legs to get his hands in front of him.
They also said a 9mm is real flat and under those layers, it would be very easy to miss in a patdown.
A wrecker driver had come along before the back-ups got there and the perp fired at him, too, but missed. Perp's wife is a security guard and it was her gun. TV reporter just talked to her while she hid behind her front door - they disguised her voice - and she is very upset that it was her gun that killed the officer.
Why'd she give it to the perp in the first place, then? I was going to guess K-person after hearing about the dreads, but illegal is correct - and no dreads.
They said he was deported in 1999 and sneaked back across "to visit family." (That apparently makes it OK?) No crimes until 2004, IIRC. They want to know where he was in between.