Flags are at half-mast around the city today to honor Kevin Ambrose, the Springfield police officer who was shot and killed yesterday responding to a domestic disturbance.
Ambrose, a 36-year veteran of the SPD, had been sent to a Sixteen Acres apartment after a woman there called to say that her ex-boyfriend, against whom she’d just obtained a restraining order, was in the area. When Ambrose arrived, reports the Republican’s Patrick Johnson, the boyfriend, Shawn Bryan, allegedly shot the officer, the woman, and then fatally shot himself. The woman, Charlene Mitchell, survived but is in critical condition.
Bryan, ironically, worked in law enforcement, as a corrections officer in New York.
In a prepared statement, Mayor Domenic Sarno offered condolences to Ambrose’s family, saying the officer “wore his badge with honor and integrity and served our City with a tremendous amount of pride and passion. …
“The men and women in blue at the Springfield Police Department, like police departments throughout the country, are faced with very challenging, difficult and dangerous situations on a daily basis,” Sarno continued. “For this, we owe a tremendous amount of gratitude to our police officers and their families. Today, Officer Ambrose paid the ultimate sacrifice protecting and serving the residents of our City. He will be sadly missed by his fellow officers and the community at-large.”
