Convict named who killed rookie California policewoman

DAVIS, Calif. — A man who shot and killed a rookie police officer in Northern California before taking his own life during a standoff with police was a 48-year-old convict who had been ordered to surrender a semi-automatic rifle.

Kevin Douglas Limbaugh’s name was released Saturday as authorities continued to investigate his motive for the attack.

The Sacramento Bee reports that court documents show Limbaugh was charged and convicted in a battery case last fall, and he agreed in November to surrender the weapon.

The case stemmed from Limbaugh getting arrested in September for assaulting someone at Cache Creek Casino, Yolo County Sheriff’s Sgt. Matthew Davis said.

Authorities have not determined where Limbaugh obtained the two semi-automatic handguns he was believed to have used in the Thursday night attack that killed 22-year-old Officer Natalie Corona in the college town of Davis.

Police said a gunman on a bicycle ambushed the officer, shooting her from the shadows as she investigated a car accident, then reloaded and narrowly avoided wounding others before walking home.

At his house a few blocks away, he casually chatted with his roommate as if nothing happened and even went outside to watch as police from around the region began rushing to the shooting scene, Davis Police Chief Darren Pytel said Friday.

The gunman left behind a backpack that helped police track him to the house. The chief said as police began to surround it, he stepped outside wearing a bulletproof vest.

“He shouted some stuff, went back in and came back out with a firearm, then went back inside, pushed a couch in front of the door and officers heard a gunshot,” Pytel said.

Police eventually sent a robotic camera in and found the shooter had shot himself in the head.

Police found the handguns in the home.

The shooting devastated the Davis Police Department, which has about 60 sworn officers and about 30 other employees. Corona was the first officer in the department to die in the line of duty since 1959. She had only been patrolling solo for about two weeks, the chief said.

Father speaks

Corona’s father, Jose Merced Corona, spent 26 years as a Colusa County Sheriff’s sergeant before retiring and getting elected to the county’s Board of Supervisors last November. Her mother is a first-grade teacher, and two cousins are also in law enforcement, Gomez said.

Corona graduated from the Sacramento Police Academy last July and completed her training in December just before Christmas, officials said.

“She was very proud,” her father told Fox40-TV, choking back tears as he spoke about how much she loved her job.

“She would come home, she would be beaming,” her father said, his voice quivering. “She died doing what she wanted to do, what she loved.”

He pinned the badge on his daughter at her swearing-in ceremony in August.

Corona was the second officer killed in California in the past two and a half weeks.

Cpl. Ronil Singh, 33, of the Newman Police Department was shot to death Dec. 26 after he stopped a suspected drunk driver.

Gustavo Arriaga Perez, also 33, was charged with the murder. Authorities said Perez Arriaga was in the country illegally and was preparing to flee to Mexico when he was arrested. That killing rekindled a debate over California’s sanctuary law that limits cooperation by local officials with federal immigration authorities.