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Second Florida Police Officer Dies After String of Cop Shootings

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A police officer walks toward a crime scene in Florida. Four police officers were shot in two separate shootings in two Florida cities, Aug. 19, 2017.
A police officer walks toward a crime scene in Florida. Four police officers were shot in two separate shootings in two Florida cities, Aug. 19, 2017.

Six U.S. police officers were shot, two fatally, in three incidents Friday night in the states of Florida and Pennsylvania.

In the central Florida city of Kissimmee, two officers responded to a threat of suspicious activity, and shots were fired when they were confronted with an armed suspect. Officer Matthew Baxter died shortly after the confrontation, and Kissimmee police said Sergeant Richard "Sam" Howard died Saturday afternoon.

The Kissimmee Police Department's Twitter feed quoted Police Chief Jeff O'Dell as saying, "Looks as though it may have been an ambush."

President Donald Trump, on a working vacation at his Bedminister, New Jersey golf club, tweeted condolences to the Kissimmee Police Department early Saturday morning.

Kissimmee police later arrested and charged Everette Glenn Miller, 45, with first degree murder. O'Dell said it appeared Miller did not have a significant criminal background.

O'Dell said three other people were questioned in the Kissimmee shootings and no other charges were expected.

Meanwhile, two officers were shot responding to a call about an attempted suicide in a house in the northeastern Florida city of Jacksonville, about 150 miles north of Kissimmee.

One of those officers was in critical condition and the other was in stable condition. Police shot and killed the suspect in that shooting.

Two troopers in the northeastern state of Pennsylvania were shot following an incident at a store in the Fayette County borough of Fairchance.

Pennsylvania State Police Trooper Melinda Bondarenka said both officers were stable and alert.

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