The Springfield Republican is reporting that a 36 year veteran of the Springfield Police Department was killed today while responding to a domestic disturbance.  Officer Kevin Ambrose was shot and later died due to injuries sustained along with others at an apartment off of Wilbraham Road near the old movie theaters near Western New England University.  The neighborhood is described as part of Sixteen Acres in news reports, but although that area, too has been called safe, it is on the western edge of the sprawling neighborhood that takes up much of the city’s southeastern quadrant.

Reports now confirm that the shooter, Shawn Bryan, took his own life after shooting Ambrose and his girlfriend.  Police were responding to a domestic disturbance/serving a restraining order issued only an hour or so before the shooting.  Following a brief altercation outside the apartment, Bryan took his girlfriend into the apartment.  As Ambrose tried to gain entry, Bryan shot the police officer through the door, opened the door and shot Ambrose again.  The girlfriend remains in critical condition.

City Council staff have confirmed that all Council meetings and hearing scheduled for this evening have been cancelled.  According to the Republican Ambrose is the fifteenth officer to fall in the line of duty.  Twenty-seven years ago, Officers Alain Beauregard and Michael Schiavina were killed responding to a traffic stop.  The man responsible for Beauregard and Schiavina’s deaths killed himself when surrounded by police and a passenger in the car at the time remain incarcerated.