South Bend officer killed Tuesday; gunman killed by local police

SOUTH BEND – A man suspected of firing random shots at an unoccupied nightclub and a billboard opened fire on two police officers talking to him through a motel room door, killing one of the officers.\nThe gunman was killed when a wounded officer and another who had just arrived returned fire, police said.\nCpl. Nick Polizzotto, 34, a nine-year veteran of the force, died in the early Tuesday shooting, said South Bend Police Chief Tom Fautz. The other officer, Patrolman Michael Norby, 29, was wounded, treated at Memorial Hospital and released.\nThe shooting came hours after more than 100 people attended a ceremony Monday night to commemorate the one-year anniversary of the death of Cpl. Scott Severns, an off-duty police officer who died two days after being shot during an attempted robbery. Another South Bend police officer suffered a minor wound in a shootout last month.\n“This is getting to be all-too-often of a situation where I’m sitting in front of these cameras along with these other folks trying to explain why an officer has been shot,” said Tim Corbett, commander of the St. Joseph County Metro Homicide Unit. “We get shot because people want to shoot us. This is an ugly, ugly world. There’s people who don’t care and we still have to go out and fight that.”\nThe two officers were responding to reports of shots being fired at Club Landing, a night club open only Friday and Saturday nights, and a nearby billboard about 1:30 a.m., St. Joseph County Prosecutor Michael Dvorak said.\nWhen they arrived, Polizzotto and Norby were told the gunman went to the Wooden Indian Motel about a half mile away.\nPolizzotto and Norby learned that the man lived in an apartment on the second floor of the motel. They were outside the man’s door talking with him for 10 to 15 seconds when he began firing at close range, striking both police officers, Dvorak said.\nAuthorities had not determined a motivation for the shooting and did not immediately release the gunman’s name. Corbett said he was not wanted in the county. Police were checking whether he was wanted elsewhere.\nDvorak said both officers were wearing bullet-resistant vests.\nCorbett said they were hit in areas not covered by the vests, but declined to be more specific until after an autopsy was conducted on Polizzotto. He declined to say where Norby had been shot. He also wouldn’t say how many shots were fired.\nTwo more police officers who arrived just before the gunman began firing. Norby and Officer Nick Zarate returned fire, one of them fatally wounding the man, Dvorak said.\nTwo other officers, Sgt. David Newton and Cpl. Antoine Jones, moved Polizzotto from the apartment doorway to paramedics near the street.\n“They exposed themselves to pull Officer Polizzotto out of harm’s way,” Corbett said.\nCorbett said investigators had recovered two guns used by the gunman. He declined to be more specific. He said the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms was investigating where the man obtained the guns.\nCity of South Bend Mayor Stephen Luecke said he believed part of the reason for the spate of police shootings is partially from a loss of respect for authority.