Suspect Deshawn Anthony Vaughn was found dead after Euclid police officer Jacob Derbin was killed in an ambush shooting: officials

EUCLID, Ohio – An Ohio police officer investigating a disturbance call at a home was fatally shot in an “ambush” Saturday night by a suspected gunman who was found dead Sunday, authorities said, ABC News reported.

The shooting occurred just before 10 p.m. local time in a residential area of ​​Euclid, Ohio, about 15 miles northeast of Cleveland, Capt. Mitchell Houser, a spokesman for the Euclid Police Department, said in a statement.

Houser said officers were called to a residence to investigate a disturbance.

“While police were investigating, a gunman ambushed an officer and struck him with gunfire,” Houser said.

The fatally wounded officer was taken to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead, Houser said.

According to Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost, the officer killed has been identified as 23-year-old Jacob Derbin.

“The promise of protection is signed with the blood of our officers. The murderer who ambushed Officer Derbin will be found and will receive the full measure of justice,” Yost said in a statement Sunday. “It is a cruel irony that a mother lost her son on Mother’s Day and that this murder occurred just as we were preparing to honor our fallen during Police Memorial Week. My heart burns with anger at the injustice to this young officer’s family and the Euclid Police Department.

Authorities began searching for the suspect. Police identified him as 24-year-old Deshawn Anthony Vaughn, but said he was found dead Sunday afternoon at a home in Shaker Heights, Ohio.

A motive for the shooting remains under investigation.

The shooting came just hours after three Atlanta police officers were shot while responding to a call Saturday night, officials said. The officers were shot after they were called to investigate a report of a man with a gun, Atlanta Police Chief Darin Schierbaum said during a news conference.

The unidentified officers encountered the suspect, who was reportedly armed with a handgun and a knife, when shots were fired, Schierbaum said.

On April 29, four members of a U.S. Marshals Fugitive Task Force were killed and four others were injured in a shooting in Charlotte, North Carolina, while attempting to serve active warrants on a suspect identified as 39-year-old Terry According to police, Clark Hughes Jr. was killed in the shooting.

According to the nonprofit Officer Down Memorial Page, at least 58 police officers have been killed in the line of duty so far this year, including 22 by gunfire.

In 2023, 136 federal, state and local law enforcement officers died in the line of duty, compared to 224 officers in 2022, a decrease of nearly 40%.