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LAS VEGAS (AP) — A veteran Las Vegas police officer was wounded by an AK-47 assault rifle and two suspects were injured and arrested after a backyard prowler call and pre-dawn shootout, authorities said Friday.
Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo said 37-year-old officer Jeremy Robertson was out of surgery and stable after being shot in the upper leg shortly before 4 a.m. while responding to a home burglary call several miles west of downtown Las Vegas.
A day before Robertson was wounded, Lombardo said he had spoken to his entire department about safety and remaining vigilant, "at a time when our profession is increasingly difficult and dangerous."
The Las Vegas area has had seven officer-involved shootings in seven weeks, injuring three officers, he said.
"The families of our officers worry more and more about their loved ones as each day passes with news of another cop killed somewhere in America," Lombardo said.
Lombardo said Robertson, a 14-year-veteran of the police department, is expecting a second child with his wife.
"My officers are on pins and needles as we go through this," he said, referring to the recent killings of officers elsewhere.
He said there was no evidence the suspected shooters who wounded Robertson did so out of a personal vendetta against police.
Officers arrested 20-year-old Clemon Hudson and 24-year-old Steven Turner who face attempted murder, burglary and weapons charges. Lombardo said based on witness statements a third suspect may have driven away from the scene in a white Nissan Maxima.
Lombardo indicated Hudson and Turner may have been looking for a different house in the same neighborhood when they allegedly rang the doorbell and went into the backyard, prompting a resident inside to call the police to report a possible armed home invasion.
When police arrived and were led through the house to the backyard, Lombardo said Turner and Hudson immediately fired shots at the officers.
Police recovered the AK-47 assault rifle at the scene as well as a 12-gauge shotgun and handgun.
Turner, who police shot in the lower leg, was found a few hours later, a couple blocks away walking in the road. Lombardo said Hudson refused to surrender in the backyard and was bitten on his head and hand by a police dog. Both were treated and taken into custody.
In searching for Turner, officers locked down a wide area including homes and stores in a commercial corridor of Rainbow Boulevard south of the U.S. 95 freeway for a door-to-door search using police dogs, SWAT and patrol officers, and a helicopter.
Lombardo said Turner had been arrested in Nevada before in 2012 for DUI, hit and run, property damage and others charges. It wasn't clear if he had been convicted in the case.
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