Off-duty police officer shot and killed in US

An off-duty police officer has been shot and killed inside his Darby Township home in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, according to police.  

The four-year veteran of the Darby Borough Police Department was shot in the chest in his home in the 600 block of Magnolia Avenue at about 4:30 p.m. Saturday.

The officer, 26, was rushed to Fitzgerald Mercy Hospital and from there to Presbyterian Hospital but was later pronounced dead, police said.

He was a “shining star" in the department and according to Richard Womack, Darby Township police commissioner, he had been a hardworking officer and also a volunteer firefighter at Yeadon Fire Company.

Police have declined to release the name of the officer, saying they are awaiting his family notification.

Investigation is underway by both Darby Township and Darby Borough Police departments, but so far nobody has been arrested.

Darby Township Police Chief Len McDevitt Jr. said police are conducting interviews, adding homicide charges are expected to be lodged Sunday afternoon.

The shooting came just a day after another police officer was shot in the face by a man in Boston, Massachusetts.

A man in a motor vehicle, which was stopped by police, opened fire critically wounding officer John Moynihan who is in a medically induced coma at a Boston hospital.

Every year, more than 30,000 people are shot and killed in the United States. Many critics blame the notoriously liberal gun control laws in the US for the country’s high rate of gun violence.

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