Hunt for police shooter
US in shock as crowd chants ‘we hope they die’ after officers attacked
LOS ANGELES: US President Donald Trump has called those responsible for the ambush shooting of two cops in their police car “animals that must be hit hard”, as he pushed his law-and-order platform on the campaign trail.
Video footage shows a single shooter walking casually by the parked car in the Los Angeles suburb of Compton before pulling a handgun and firing through the windows.
The two officers, a 31-yearold woman and 24-year-old man, were rushed to hospital in a critical condition.
Protesters gathered outside the hospital emergency room, blocking the entrance, as they chanted “we hope they die”, the sheriff’s department said.
Mr Trump tweeted that if the officers died, “fast trial death penalty for the killer — only way to stop this!”
Democrat presidential candidate Joe Biden called the cold-blooded shooting “absolutely unconscionable”.
LA Police later said the two officers were expected to survive and posted a $US100,000 ($138,000) reward to find the shooter.
Los Angeles Sheriff Alex Villanueva called the shooting “cowardly”.
“This is just a sombre reminder that this is a dangerous job. Actions, words have consequences and our job does not get easier because people don’t like law enforcement,” he said.
Mr Trump has hammered a message of law and order as racial equality protests continue nationwide since the death in May of black man George Floyd under the knee of a white police officer.
In his campaign stop on Sunday, Mr Trump told supporters that if Mr Biden was elected president, the “rioters, the anarchists win”.
In a boost to the Democrats, billionaire Mike Bloomberg will donate at least $US100m to Mr Biden’s campaign in Florida, a battleground state that could sway the outcome of the November 3 election.
The former New York mayor made the decision after Mr Trump announced last week that he was prepared to spend part of his own fortune on his re-election campaign in the absence of donations, The Washington Post reported.