• Suspect in fatal shooting of Auburn policeman is dead

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  Auburn Officer Ronald Tarentino Jr., who was shot and killed.
  

  

  
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• By Brian Lee
  Telegram & Gazette Staff

  By Mark Sullivan
  Telegram & Gazette Staff

  
  Posted May. 22, 2016 at 6:51 AM
  Updated at 8:33 PM
  
  

  AUBURN - The suspect in the fatal shooting of an Auburn police officer is dead, District Attorney Joseph D. Early Jr. confirmed in a news conference Sunday evening.

  "An exchange of gunfire erupted shortly after 6 p.m.," the DA said, resulting in fatal injuries to Jorge Zambrano, 35, of Worcester and injuries to a veteran state trooper who had entered the duplex looking for the suspect in Sunday's early morning slaying of Officer Ronald Tarentino Jr.

  Officer Tarentino, who leaves a wife and three children, was shot and killed around 12:30 a.m. Sunday after stopping a vehicle on Rochdale Street. The assailant fled, and a manhunt for the shooter began.

  Authorities did not immediately identify the trooper wounded in the exchange at 31-33 Watch St., Oxford, where the investigation led police and where the vehicle involved in the overnight slaying was located.

  Col. Richard D. McKeon of the Massachusetts State Police, said the trooper was struck in the shoulder and is expected to survive.

  Sunday afternoon, state and local police cleared residents from the neighborhood on Watch Street near the Leicester-Oxford town line. Police were seen wearing bulletproof vests, and what sounded like gunshots could be heard.

  In Leicester, hundreds of people, many holding American flags, lined Main Street Sunday evening as Officer Tarentino's body was brought to Morin Funeral Home. As the silver hearse rolled by in a procession that included Auburn police cruisers and dozens of officers on motorcycles, residents, many with tears in their eyes, held their hands over their hearts.

  As sirens wailed and blue lights flashed, the hearse pulled underneath a large American flag hoisted in the air on a firetruck ladder. Moments later, members of the department received hugs from Medford police, who helped with the escort, as well as state police.

  “We will leave no stone unturned in our investigation to determine who was responsible for Officer Tarentino’s murder,” Auburn Police Chief Andrew J. Sluckis Jr. had said at a noon press briefing.

  Chief Sluckis said an intensive investigation was launched by Auburn police, Massachusetts State Police, Worcester Police, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the office of the district attorney.

  “We are devastated for his family,” Chief Sluckis said of the slain officer, who transferred to the Auburn force from the Leicester police two years ago. The chief spoke around noon at the Auburn police station with State Police Col. Richard D. McKeon and Mr. Early. “The residents of Auburn have lost a dedicated and brave public servant.”

  Officer Tarentino's death is the second of a Central Massachusetts police officer in two months. Trooper Thomas Clardy of Hudson was killed March 16 in a car crash on the Massachusetts Turnpike in Charlton.

  Melissa MacDonald, a 29-year Auburn resident, was one of several to leave flowers at a memorial in front of the police station Sunday morning.

  Ms. MacDonald said she did not know the slain officer but wanted to express her condolences.

  "We're a very tight knit community," she said. "It's so sad."

  State police divers were in a body of water Sunday afternoon near the scene of the shooting.

  Officer Tarentino's body, accompanied by a procession of police vehicles, was transported from UMass Memorial Medical Center - University Campus, to the medical examiner's office in Boston. Later Sunday, the body was being returned to Leicester, with a motorcycle escort on the Massachusetts Turnpike. Police lined overpasses to watch the procession.

  As the hearse approached the funeral home in Leicester, Matt Dennison, a former selectman said, "We don't think about this here. ... It's heartbreaking."

  "He was a gentle giant," Mr. Dennison said. "He wasn't the kind of guy to use his stature to intimidate."Mr. Dennison recalled going on ride-alongs with Officer Tarentino and the officer showing him his beloved Mustang. "He was proud of it and be should have been," he said. "It was gorgeous."

  Mr. Dennison's daughter Kaitlyn said she knows Officer Tarentino's oldest son, Ronald; she said Ronald, about 20, is a member of the armed forces and he was on his way home from South Carolina Sunday evening.

  Leicester Police Chief James Hurley, one of the officers standing in front of the Tarentino home, referred comment to investigating authorities. Chief Hurley said he would speak later, after approval from the district attorney, about Officer Tarentino’s career with Leicester police.

  In Auburn, a procession of police cruisers and police motorcycles with lights flashing and sirens sounding drove by the police station around 9:30 a.m. Auburn police officers stood outside the building and saluted.

  A steady stream of well-wishers visited the Auburn police station Sunday.

  They brought baked goods and condolences, and left bouquets of flowers at the police memorial outside the station, where the flag hung at half-mast.

  Shortly after 9:15 a.m., a lengthy procession of police cruisers and motorcycles with lights flashing and sirens sounding passed the police station on Oxford Street North.

  Station personnel stood on the side of the road and saluted as the procession passed. Some embraced one another.

  At a playing field across the street, a softball mother watching the scene unfold at the police station said she herself was the sister of a New York policeman.

  “You see a procession like this, it makes you want to bawl, “ she said.

  Brad Petrishen of the Telegram & Gazette staff contributed to this report.

  Return to telegram.com for more on this story.