Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden called the shooting of two sheriff’s deputies in Los Angeles “unconscionable” while President Trump called for a “fast trial” with the possibility of the death penalty on Sunday.
“This cold-blooded shooting is unconscionable and the perpetrator must be brought to justice,” Biden wrote on Twitter after the Saturday shooting. “Violence of any kind is wrong; those who commit it should be caught and punished. Jill and I are keeping the deputies and their loved ones in our hearts and praying for a full recovery.”
The officers were being treated at St. Francis Medical Center in Lynwood, Calif., the Long Beach Press-Telegram reported.
Trump first responded to the ambush-style shooting early Sunday morning.
“Animals that must be hit hard!” Trump wrote, referring to criminals who target law enforcement.
“If [the deputies] die, fast trial death penalty for the killer. Only way to stop this!” Trump later wrote.
Both deputies were sworn in just over a year ago and the female deputy is the mother of a 6-year-old boy, officials said in a 10 p.m. news conference. Both of their families were rallying around them at the hospital.
A screen grab from a security camera video released the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department shows a gunman walking up to sheriff’s deputies and opening fire without warning or provocation in Compton, Calif., on Saturday, Sept. 12, 2020. (Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department via AP)
Sheriff Alex Villanueva said while authorities don’t have a detailed suspect description, one of the deputies described the shooter as a “dark-skinned male.”
Villanueva said the shooting shows the dangers officers face in the streets and how situations can change in “the blink of an eye.”
