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Police: 4th Officer Still On Life Support
March 22, 2009Schwarzenegger Orders Flags At Half-Staff
OAKLAND, Calif. -- Oakland police are backing off an earlier statement that a fourth officer shot Saturday had died.
Oakland police department spokesman Jeff Thomason said 41-year-old Officer John Hege was pronounced brain-dead but was still on life support Sunday afternoon.
Thomason said that a final decision was still being made about donating Hege's organs.
Authorities said a 26-year-old parolee opened fire on Hege and 40-year-old Sgt. Mark Dunakin after they pulled him over on Saturday, killing Dunakin.
Suspect Lovelle Mixon was slain later that afternoon in a gunfight with police that left two more officers dead.
Thomason identified those officers as 43-year-old Sgt. Ervin Romans and 35-year-old Sgt. Daniel Sakai.
Meanwhile, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has ordered flags at the state Capitol flown at half-staff in honor of the slain officers.
He arrived in Oakland Sunday to meet with the city's mayor and members of the police department.
Police said the officers' deaths were the most ever in a single day in the department's history.
The governor said all four of the officers dedicated their lives to public safety and selflessly worked to protect the people of Oakland.
At the Oakland police station, people left four bouquets of white roses under a granite memorial wall inside the building lobby.
Meanwhile, Mixon's family is defending him.
A cousin of Mixon said Sunday that he was "not a monster."
Twenty-eight-year-old LaTasha Mixon of Sacramento also said her family's prayers were with the slain officers' relatives.
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