Alpha Sigma Phi killed in a police shoot out

[Jill1228]

This article was taken from the Alpha Sigma Phi home page


SWAT Officer Dan Sakai Enters Omega Chapter
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 22, 2009 | 11:00 A.M. EDT

OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA – Three Oakland police sergeants were shot and killed and a fourth officer was critically wounded Saturday in a pair of related incidents that together rank among the deadliest attacks on law enforcement in California history.

A fifth officer, a member of the SWAT team that killed the suspect police held responsible for the shootings, was treated for minor injuries and released.

One of the officers killed in Saturday’s incident was Fraternity Brother Sgt. Daniel Sakai, UC-Berkeley ’91, 35, he was hired in December 2000. He was pronounced dead after he was shot as he entered an apartment in search of a suspect that shot at Oakland police officers hours earlier in Oakland, Calif., on Saturday, March 21, 2009. Sakai was survived by his wife Jennifer. He received the Fraternity’s Delta Beta Xi Key in 2003 for his service to the Old Gal.

The first incident happened about 1:15 p.m. when two traffic officers were gunned down after what police described as a "routine" stop of a 1995 Buick in the 7400 block of MacArthur Boulevard in East Oakland, not far from the Eastmont Town Center.

About two hours later, after some 200 officers from Oakland Police, Alameda County Sheriff's Office, BART Police and the California Highway Patrol combed the area for the suspect, three SWAT officers were shot when their team found him hidden in an apartment on 74th Avenue near Hillside Street, police officials said.

In all, two SWAT officers and one traffic officer died in the two incidents; one traffic officer was on life support late Saturday.

"In these moments, words are extraordinarily inadequate," Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums told reporters at a news conference Saturday night at Oakland police headquarters. "We come together in shock, in grief, in sadness and sorrow. Our hearts go out to the officers' families who are experiencing a level of tragedy that goes beyond our ability to comprehend."