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http://www.kalb.com/news/education/MGBEXB16FCD.html

Police Shootout
By: Staff
February 20, 2003

At least six Alexandria Police officers have been wounded in a shootout that erupted this afternoon as police attempted to arrest a suspect in the ambush of another officer.

Police exchanged gunfire with a man who was in a house. Students at a nearby school were locked inside their building, as sheriff's deputies and state troopers were called in to help police.

Police Chief Tommy Cicardo told K-A-L-B T-V that at least six officers were wounded. Their conditions were not immediately available.

Officers had been looking for a gunman who opened fire with an assault rifle on a police officer yesterday morning.

The officer was ambushed while responding to an apparently false report of a robbery. When the officer got back in his patrol car after finding no robbery victim, the gunman sprayed the car with bullets. Police say about 20 shots were fired, but the officer was not hit.

Cicardo says the officer, whose name was not released, injured his leg as he scrambled to the passenger side of the car to avoid the gunfire and drove away from the shootout.

Officer ambushed
By: AP
February 20, 2003

Alexandria police are looking for a gunman who opened fire with an assault rifle on a police officer yesterday morning.

The officer was ambushed shortly after midnight while responding to an apparently false report of a robbery.

Authorities say when the officer got back in his patrol car after finding no robbery victim, the gunman sprayed the car with bullets. About 20 shots were fired. The officer was not hit but he hurt his leg as he scrambled to the car's passenger side to avoid the gunfire.

Police Chief Tommy Cicardo says the shooter remains on the loose and officers won't rest until he's caught. He says he doesn't know if the shooting was meant as an attack on the individual officer, on the city police department or law enforcement in general.

Cicardo says the department's narcotics division has been actively working cases and making arrests in the area.

http://www.kalb.com/news/education/MGB9KTETECD.html

Alexandria officer killed in gun battle; six injured

Posted on February 20, 2003

One Alexandria police officer was killed today in a shootout near Overton and Warshauer streets as police closed in on a suspect believed to be involved in a Wednesday ambush on another officer.
Six other officers were wounded, said Police Chief Tommy Cicardo.
The wounded were taken to both St. Frances Cabrini and Rapides Regional hospitals.
The suspect also was shot and is believed to be dead.
Cicardo briefed The Town Talk at about 3:30 p.m. Tearfully, he confirmed the fatality but said no names would be released until family members were notified.
While trying to resolve the sitaution, police also had to contend with people jeering them, some shouting obscenities.
Just before 3:30 p.m., police began surrounding the area with yellow crime scene tape and it appeared the situation was under control.
Students at Rapides Motivational Center and Alma Redwine Elementary School were under lockdown and district officials said no student would leave the school until the situation is resolved. Some students had been evacuated to the district's Media Center downtown.
School officials said parents of students who live in that area are being contacted to get their children. Those students are not being allowed on school buses. Those schools are Alexandria Middle, Arthur F. Smith, Peabody Magnet, Bolton and ASH.
If the parents cannot be contacted, those students will not be sent home until the incident is over.
The Rapides Parish Sheriff's Office and the Louisiana State Police's SWAT team assisted the Alexandria department.

Shootout Kills Louisiana Cop, 5 more wounded!