California: One police officer died, two injured in Sacramento shooting

Sacramento (California): County Sheriff's Deputy Robert French died and two other Patrol officers were wounded in a shootout at an Auburn Boulevard hotel.

The 52-year old French died on his way to the hospital, said Sheriff Scott Jone, reported a local newspaper.

French was serving the country from past 21-year and worked as a training officer with the north area patrol unit.

"This is certainly the most difficult thing a department can go through. We'll survive this as a community. We've been through it before. But it is painful. It will take a period of grieving," Jone said.

The two California Highway Patrol officers are hospitalized and are expected to survive, Jones said.

The Police have arrested three suspects in connection with the incident, which took place at the Ramada Inn in the 2600 block of Auburn Boulevard, while investigation of a stolen vehicle.

Tony Turnbull, Sheriff's Department spokesman said that two additional suspects may remain inside the motel.

As per Turnbull, a vehicle theft task force had gone to hotel parking lot, where two suspects, both women, then led the officers on a chase that ended in the Laguna area of Elk Grove, where the women were taken into custody.

The officers then checked then returned to the Ramada Inn in search of possible suspects in a room.

When they knocked on a hotel room door, a man opened fire through the door.

Additional deputies responded on the back side of the room, but the male suspect wielding a high-powered rifle, in a shootout that killed French.

The suspect then jumped off the balcony and got into a car in the parking lot. He escaped on Fulton Avenue and crashed near Watt Avenue. After exchanging gunfire again with officers, he was struck and then arrested.