Law enforcement personnel gather near the scene where two police officers were shot and wounded in a rural area in Independence, Mo., Thursday, Feb. 29, 2014. Independence Police Department spokesperson Officer Jack Taylor said the two officers were taken to a hospital, and their conditions were not immediately known. One person was arrested, he said. (AP Photo/Heather Hollingsworth)
INDEPENDENCE, Mo. (AP) – A court employee and a police officer were fatally shot Thursday after the court process server tried to serve an eviction notice at a home in Independence, Missouri, authorities said.
A second officer was critically injured, but is expected to survive, police said at a news conference.
A male suspect sustained minor injuries, Corporal Justin Ewing with Missouri State Highway Patrol said during a separate news conference.
Independence Police Department spokesperson Officer Jack Taylor said no details are immediately available about what led to the shooting.
Helicopter video from KMBC-TV showed emergency vehicles converged around an isolated house in the middle of a field. The media was cordoned off in an area about 1 mile (1.61 kilometers) from the crime scene. The area was a mixture of woods and farmland with a smattering of houses on large, multi-acre lots. A church was mixed in among the houses.
Independence is a suburb of Kansas City, with about 122,000 residents.
